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SELECTIONS 



THE WRITINGS 

dr: whately, 

M 

ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN, 

"WITH HIS GRACE'S PERMISSION.'" 



' " Invenies etiam disjecti membra poetse." — Horace. 

" The perception of analogies— the exercise of that powerful abstraction 
which seizes the point of agreement in a number of otherwise dissimilar 
individuals — it is in this that the greatest genius is shewn."— Bishop 
Copleston. 



LONDON : 
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 

^ufclisfjet in ortrtnat:» to f^er i&ajestg. 

1856. 






LONDON : 
WALTOX AND MITCHELL, PRINTKRS, WARDOUR STREET. 



^-M0 



INTRODUCTION. 



The work now presented to the public was originally 
designed to form the Second Volume of a Selection 
from the Writings of Archbishop Whately 
published under the title of Detached Thoughts and 
Apophthegms ; but an unavoidable delay in the publi- 
cation has made it advisable that the present Series 
should appear as a separate Work. 

It will be found, however, to differ from the former 
chiefly in this respect, that instead of being, like it, 
confined to one topic, — the all-important topic of the 
Love of Truth in Keligious Enquiry, — this Selection 
embraces a great variety of subjects. The Selection, 
therefore, as designed to be, in many instances, an 
exposition (however necessarily inadequate) of a sub- 
ject, and not merely of a single thought, is conse- 
quently of greater length. 

This feature of the present Selection, it is confidently 
anticipated, must commend it to those readers whose 
first introduction it may be to the Works from which 
it has been made. Nor is the Editor less hopeful of 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

obtaining from the class of readers familiar with those 
Works, that indulgence for this little Volume, which is 
all that, at their hands, it can claim. That know- 
ledge of the Works from which a selection has been 
made, ordinarily so much to be deprecated by an Edi- 
tor, as involving disappointment at unavoidable omis- 
sions, is felt in this case to be the best security for 
indulgence being extended. He who is best ac- 
quainted with the Works of Archbishop Whately 
can best appreciate the difficulty of selection, and can 
most accurately estimate Venibarras de ricJiesses. 

It is hoped that the readers of each class will feel, 
with the Editor, an especial interest in the thoughts 
on Scripture and kindred subjects. These have not 
been selected without earnest prayer, for the influence 
of that Divine Spirit which can alone make any words 
of wisdom minister " to the use of edifying." 

It remains only to add, that this Selection, as well 
as the former, has been made with the Author's full 
permission, accorded with a prompt and liberal kind- 
ness which claims the Editor's most grateful acknow- 
ledgments. 

November UtJi, 1855. 



THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 



Four kinds of bad examples do us harm : — 1. Those 
we imitate; 2. those we proudly exult over; 3. 
those which drive us into an opposite extreme ; and 
4, those which lower our standard. A man is al- 
ways in danger of being satisfied, and perhaps, 
more than satisfied, if he does but excel ; and excel- 
lence is relative. Whence it comes that bad examples 
do much the greatest amount of evil among those 
who do not follow them. For one who is corrupted 
by becoming as bad as a bad example, there are ten 
that are debased by becoming content with being 
better. 

An honest man has, ceteris paribus, a better know- 
ledge of human nature than a knave ; because he 
knows that there are knaves ; while the other gene- 

B 



2 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

rally disbelieves the existence of honest men. In- 
ferior motives, self-interest, love of ease, . &c, are 
understood by all, because they exist in all. The 
higher motives do not exist in the baser part of man- 
kind, who, consequently, are apt not to believe in 
them. It is to this Miss Edgeworth alludes, when 
she speaks of the class of persons who " divide all 
mankind into knaves and fools ; and when they meet 
with an honest man, do not know what to make of 
him." 

The poet who said, " Little things are great to 
little men," might have added, " Great things are 
little to little men." 

As a great part of the pleasure afforded by wit 
results from a perception of skill displayed and diffi- 
culty surmounted, jests on sacred subjects afford the 
least gratification to judges of good taste, for this 
reason, (apart from all higher considerations,) that 
they are the most easily produced of any ; the con- 
trast between a dignified and a low image exhibited 
in combination, (in which the whole force of the 
ludicrous consists,) being in this case the most 
striking. 

Lord Byron, though a dangerous writer to the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 6 

very thoughtless, may, in his later works, prove a 
very serviceable writer to a person of tolerable good 
sense, by furnishing a sort of reductio ad absurdum 
of the whole system of scoffing. 

A Socinian, we will say, who fancies ridicule the 
test of truth, thinks he has made the doctrine of 
the incarnation appear perfectly absurd by having 
held it up to ridicule and scorn ; professing all along, 
and perhaps, feeling, the most serious veneration for 
Christianity. But the Deist finds it very easy to 
employ the same plan for his purposes ; for, in fact, 
" everything," says the proverb, " has two handles,' 7 
and it is not difficult to place Christianity in such a 
point of view that it shall seem extravagant and 
ridiculous, and so to interweave with every part of it 
absurd ideas, and to suggest low and ludicrous associa- 
tions that it shall seem unworthy of serious notice. 
Meantime, he is perhaps not at all aware of what 
he is about, not dreaming that what he calls natural 
religion may be laughed down, just on the same 
plan. The Atheist does this for him, making the 
whole constitution and course of nature appear a joke 
— the universe, a whimsical and random jumble of 
atoms ; yet he will still have some ground to stand 
on, as he will talk very big of conforming to the 
excellence of human nature, of the perfectibility of 
the species, and of virtue being its own reward, &c. 

b 2 



4 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

Next comes the philosopher, or philosophico- 
sentimentalist of some of the German schools, who, 
in like manner, holds np to scorn all rules of ethics — 
all pretence of acting on fixed principles ; and is all 
for " listening to the dictates of the heart," " follow- 
ing the impulse of unsophisticated nature," &c, &c. 
If, therefore, you ask him whether there is anything 
at all that is worthy of serious regard, he will refer 
you to those feelings as what ought to be so con- 
sidered. Then forth steps Lord Byron, and shews 
you that it is not a whit more difficult to turn 
into ridicule all the most natural feelings of the 
human heart ; thus overthrowing the last stronghold 
to which reason, or anything partaking of reason, 
can retire ; extinguishing this last faint glimmer of 
twilight, on the same principle by which the utmost 
brilliancy that human wisdom can attain had been 
quenched. 

A man of any considerate common sense will be 
apt to pause at this, and reflect, that since there 
surely is something which is not a mere joke, and 
since it now appears plain that there is nothing 
which may not be so represented, by one who has the 
knack of setting things in an absurd point of view, 
it may be as well, to try over again, with serious 
candour, everything which has been hastily given up 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

as fit only for ridicule, and to abandon the system 
of scoffing altogether ; looking at everything on the 
right side as well as the wrong, and trying how any 
system will look standing upright, as well as topsy- 
turvey. 

There seems to me a considerable resemblance be- 
tween Lord Byron, Voltaire in his Candide, and 
Swift in his Houghymns ; viz., that each seems to 
satirize not merely any class of mankind in general, 
as they are, but human nature in the" abstract : one 
might suppose each to be a being (as, I think, Mad. 
de Stael says of Voltaire) of a different species. 
Swift does not, however, so fully answer the purpose 
of a reductio ad absurdum, because though he laughs 
at, and abuses, everything that is, he seems to have 
a real value for something that is conceivable. The 
ridicule, however, which, in his account of Lagoda 
he throws indiscriminately on all projects of improve- 
ment, (for he represents his man of sense not as 
steering a middle course, but as being against all 
alterations, wishing to let everything remain just as 
it was,) when compared with the improvements 
which have, since his time, taken place in agricul- 
tural implements, machinery of various sorts, gas- 
lamps, railroads, steamboats, and numberless things 
connected with chemistry, abundantly prove how 
possible, and how easy, it is to make what is per- 



b THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

fectly rational and highly dignified, assume an air of 
the wildest and most ludicrous absurdity. Astro- 
nomy and electricity have been most copiously ridi- 
culed in their time ; — see a satire of Hudihras — 
Butler — on the Eoyal Society, soon after its esta- 
blishment. 

It is a good plan, with a young ]^erson of a cha- 
racter to be much affected by ludicrous and absurd 
representations, to shew him plainly, by examples, 
that there is nothing which may not be so repre- 
sented ; he will hardly need to be told that every 
thing is not a mere joke, and he may thus be secured 
from falling into a contempt of those particular 
things, which he may, at any time, happen to find 
so treated. 

Certainly, it cannot be said that Lord Byron has 
put vice in the most seductive form ; for he always 
places it in company with acute suffering or dismal 
gloom. And though, in many instances, he has con- 
ferred a dignity on his vicious character, nearly (not 
quite) as seductive as that of Milton's Satan, yet in 
Don Juan he has robbed it even of dignity. His 
writings, however, may do harm to the very 
thoughtless. 

Sophistry, like poison, is at once detected and 
nauseated, when presented to us in a concentrated 



MISCELLANEOUS. 7 

form ; but a fallacy which, when stated barely in a 
few sentences, w^ould not deceive a child, may deceive 
half the world, if diluted in a quarto volume. It is 
-true, in a course of argument, as in mechanics, that 
u nothing is stronger than its weakest part," and 
consequently a chain which has one faulty link will 
break ; but though the number of the sound links 
adds nothing to the strength of the chain, it adds 
much to the chance of the faulty one's escaping ob- 
servation. 

It must not be expected that reason will uni- 
versally make its way. " Medicamenta" says the 
medical aphorism, u non agunt incadaver." Those 
in whom indolence is combined with pride, will be 
induced, by the one, to remain in their position, 
and, by the other, to fortify it as well as they can. 

A safe man, in the estimation of most people, is 
one, not whose views are, on the w r hole, most rea- 
sonable, but one who is free from all errors except 
vulgar errors. 

Galileo, probably, would have escaped persecution, 
if his discoveries could have been disproved, and his 
reasonings refuted. 



8 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

A crude theory, in the language of some men, 
means one, which (being new) has not first occurred 
to themselves. 

A superfluous truism to one person, may be a re- 
volting paradox to another. 

An incorrect analogy, constantly before us, is like 
a distorted mirror in the apartment we inhabit, pro- 
ducing a fixed and habitual false impression. Such 
a familiar, seeming analogy between the several pro- 
fessions, has led men to feel, rather than distinctly 
maintain, that as they confide the care of their 
bodily health to the physician, and of their legal 
transactions to the lawyer, so they may commit to 
a distinct order of men, the care of their religious 
concerns, and serve God by proxy. 

Man, except when unusually depraved, retains 
enough of the image of his Maker to have a natural 
reverence for religion, and a desire that God should 
be worshipped ; but through the corruption of his 
nature, his heart is (except when divinely purified) 
too much alienated from God to take delight in serv- 
ing Him. Hence, the disposition men have ever 
shewn to substitute the devotion of the priest for 
their own ; — to leave the duties of piety in his hands, 



MISCELLANEOUS. \) 

and to let him serve God in their stead. This dis- 
position is not so much the consequence, as itself the 
origin, of priest-craft. 

The frequency with which we hear profane dis- 
course, intemperance, or devotedness to frivolous 
amusements, characterized as " unbecoming a cler- 
gyman/ 7 in a sort of tone which implies the speaker's 
feeling to be, that they are unbecoming merely 
to a clergyman, not to a Christian, is a proof of 
the general tendency to vicarious religion, which 
makes men, who take little care to keep their own 
lights burning, desirous to have one to whom they 
may apply in their extremity, " Give us of your 
oil, for our lamps are going out." 

An exemplary character, according to the notions 
of some, is one whose example no one is expected 
to follow. 

To trace any error to its source, w T ill often throw, 
more light on the subject in hand, than can be ob- 
tained, if we rest satisfied with merely detecting and 
refuting it. 

Men delight in everything peculiar, whether an 
advantage or not. 



10 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

It is seldom that a man labours well in his minor 
department, unless he overrates it. It is lucky for 
us, that the bee does not look upon the honeycomb in 
the same light we do. 

That is suitable to a man in point of ornamental 
expense, not which he can afford to have, but which 
he can afford to lose. 

Never let a confidence be forced upon you. 

Hard labour is not whenever you are very ac- 
tively employed, but when you must be. 

To be always thinking about your manners, is not 
the way to make them good ; because the very per- 
fection of manners is not to think about yourself. 

The love of admiration leads to fraud, much more 
than the love of commendation ; but, on the other 
hand, the latter is much more likely to spoil our 
good actions by the substitution of an inferior motive. 

The tendency of the love of commendation is to 
make a man exert himself ; of the love of admiration, 
to make him puff himself. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 11 

If a man is content with the opinion of virtue or 
ability, he seems manifestly prizing a mere shadow, 
and we exclaim against such pure vanity ; but if a 
person can be universally and constantly believed to 
possess beauty, or a fine ring, he has all that the 
actual possession of them could confer ; you cannot 
therefore so well blame a person for pursuing a 
shadow, in a case where the substance is valued 
only for the sake of the shadow. 

As .one of the earliest dawning, and most im- 
portant, differences between individuals is the degree 
and manner in which they desire approbation, so it 
is one of the most striking in their respective be- 
haviours. As with children, some are anxious to 
attract notice, and wanting you to observe them 
when playing, while another even of the same family 
is quite independent, and satisfied in solitude : so 
also with grown persons ; one man is considering at 
every step what people think of him ; the other, 
comparatively, concerns himself little about it : the 
one speaks as if he wanted to say something — the 
other as if he had something to say. The manner 
generated by the former habit, has been, aptly 
enough, called conscious, which perfectly accords 
w T ith Adam Smith's account of conscience ; viz., the 
judgment which we pronounce on our own conduct 
by putting ourselves in the place of a by-stander. 



12 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

"While we are taking pains with our morals, we 
are taking pains with that which is the most im- 
portant ; when about manners, we are attending to 
the surface, instead of the substance. Take care of 
the digestion and circulation, if you would keep them 
sound ; if you would keep the skin clear, take care 
(not of the skin, but) of the digestion and circu- 
lation. 

He will please most who is aiming, not to please, 
but to give pleasure. 

It is remarkable that great affectation, and great 
absence of it (unconsciousness), are at first sight 
very similar ; — they are both apt to produce sin- 
gularity. . 

Though many conscious people are very agree- 
able, there is a charm in unconscious manners, which 
endears a person, even when there is nothing else 
very remarkable in him. Social intercourse is in 
itself a pleasure, independent of the instruction or 
entertainment we may derive from the matter and 
language ; else books would be, which they are not, 
a complete substitute for society : hence it appears, 
that the essence of social intercourse is the inter- 
change of ideas, as they arise actually in the minds 
of the speakers ; the excellence of it, therefore, in 



MISCELLANEOUS. 13 

social intercourse, must consist in complete uncon- 
sciousness ; the further you recede from that, (and 
there are infinite degrees), however clever your con- 
versation, the less have you of the nature of a com- 
panion, and the more of a book ; consequently Con- 
sciousness is, as it were, the specific poison of that 
which is the very essence of conversation. All 
disregard of self also is so amiable, that uncon- 
sciousness seems to be almost a virtue. In the 
pulpit, it is quite : an ambassador from heaven 
should not dare to be thinking of .himself, and trying 
to be a fine man, when he should only be thinking of 
his message. How would the practice of this virtue, 
with singleness of heart, by the clergy increase the 
effect produced by them ! 

A student of mathematics, after having gone 
through, and seemingly understood, Euclid's proof, 
that the squares of the sides containing a right angle, 
are equal to the square of the side subtending it, re- 
marked, to the astonishment and dismay of his teacher, 
" But it is not really so, is it, Sir ?" Many, who would 
laugh at this query, might yet be found assenting to 
all the reasoning on which some political or other 
measure should be maintained, and then coolly re- 
marking, that it is practically false, though theoreti- 
cally true : or, themselves maintaining some princi - 



14 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

pies of moral conduct, which yet, they consider them- 
selves as not bound to exemplify in their own prac- 
tice, though they may be very suitable to a moral 
tale. And in proportion as men are accustomed 
(much more, children) to contemplate and admire 
virtue, without being taught, by example or other- 
wise, that they are expected to realize the picture, 
they will become the less fitted for the actual per- 
formance of their duties. 

A large volume might be composed of moral 
apophthegms which are commonly uttered, and 
readily admitted, but which were never practically 
believed by any one. 

Men's moral maxims, in general, are, like Peter 
Pindar's razors, made not to shave, but to sell. 

Ethical maxims are banded about as a sort of cur- 
rent coin of discourse, and being never melted down 
for use, those that are of base metal are never de- 
tected. 

The charity of some persons consists in proceeding 
on the supposition, that to believe in the existence 
of an injury is to cherish implacable resentment, and 
that it is impossible to forgive, except where there 
is nothing to be forgiven. It is obvious that these 



MISCELLANEOUS. 15 

notions render nugatory the gospel precepts. Why 
should we be called upon to render good for evil, if 
we are bound always to explain away that evil, and 
call it good ? Where there is manifestly just ground 
for complaint, we should accustom ourselves to say, 
" That man owes me an hundred pence !" Thus, at 
once recalling to our mind the parable of him who 
rigorously enforced his own claims, when he had 
been forgiven a debt of ten thousand talents. 

To dwell upon the faults of a parent or a friend, or 
even a stranger, is wrong ; but it is absolutely ne- 
cessary to perceive and acknowledge them ; for, if we 
think ourselves bound to vindicate them in another, 
we shall not be very likely to condemn them in our- 
selves. Self-love will, most likely, demand fair 
play, and urge that what is right in another is not 
wrong in us ; and thus we shall have been pervert- 
ing our own principles of morality. 

Most precepts that are given are so general that 
they cannot be applied, except by an exercise of 
just as much discretion as would be sufficient to 
frame them. 

Most men will agree that practice without prin- 
ciple, or vice versa, is not enough ; but they can 



16 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

seldom understand, that when both are right, some- 
thing more may vet be, and often is, wanting ; viz., 
that the practice should spring from the principle. 

Any Christian minister who should confine him- 
self to what are sometimes (erroneously) called 
" practical sermons/ 5 — t. e., mere moral essays, with- 
out any mention of the peculiar doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, — is in the same condition with the heathen 
philosophers, with this difference, that what was 
their misfortune is his fault. 

It is too generally true, that all that is required 
to make men unmindful what they owe to God for 
any blessing, is, that they should receive that bless- 
ing often enough, and regularly enough. 

Early and long familiarity is apt to generate a 
careless, — I might almost say, a stupid, indifference 
to many objects, which, if new to us, would excite 
a great and a just admiration : and many are inclined 
even to hold cheap a stranger, who expresses wonder 
at what seems to us very natural and simple, merely 
because we have been used to it, while, in fact, per- 
haps, our apathy is a more just subject of contempt 
than his astonishment. 



MISCELLANEOUS. . 17 

The liability to mistake for the wisdom of man, 
that which is in truth the wisdom of God, is mani- 
fested in nothing, perhaps, more than in overlooking 
the evidences of the Divine wisdom in the provisions 
made for the progress of society. In the bodily 
structure of man, and in the result of instinct in 
brutes, we plainly perceive innumerable marks of 
wise contrivance, in which it is plain that man and 
the brute can have had no share. But when human 
conduct tends to some desirable end, and when the 
agents are competent to perceive that the end is de- 
sirable, and the means well adapted to it, we are apt 
to forget that those means were not devised, nor 
those ends proposed, by the persons themselves who 
are employed. For instance, let any one propose to 
himself the problem of supplying with daily pro- 
visions the inhabitants of such a city as London, — 
that " province covered with houses." Let any one 
consider this problem in all its bearings, — reflecting 
on the enormous and fluctuating number of persons 
to be fed, the immense quantity, and the variety, of 
the provisions to be furnished, the importance of a 
convenient distribution of them, and the necessity of 
husbanding them discreetly, lest a deficient supply, 
even for a single day, should produce distress, or a 
redundancy, from the perishable nature of many of 
them, produce a corresponding waste ; and then, let 

c 



18 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

him reflect on the anxious toil which such a task 
would impose on a Board of the most experienced 
and intelligent commissaries, who, after all, would 
be able to discharge their office but very inadequately. 
Yet this object is accomplished far better than it 
could be by any effort of human wisdom, through 
the agency of men, who think each of nothing be- 
yond his own immediate interest, — who, with that 
object in view, perform their respective parts with 
cheerful zeal, — and combine unconsciously to employ 
the wisest means for effecting an object, the vastness 
of which it would bewilder them even to contemplate. 
Can any of the admirable marks of contrivance and 
design, in the anatomical structure of the human 
body, and in the instincts of the brute creation, be 
more admirable than that beneficient wisdom of Pro- 
vidence, by which not corporeal particles, but rational 
free agents, co-operate in systems no less manifestly 
indicating design, — yet no design of theirs ; and 
though acted on, not by gravitation and impulse, like 
inert matter, but by motives addressed to the will, 
yet advance as regularly and as effectually the ac- 
complishment of an object they never contemplated, 
as if they were merely the passive wheels of a 
machine. 

Human conduct with regard to knowledge, fur- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 19 

nishes an instance, as far as respects the object not 
being contemplated by the agent, of a procedure pre- 
cisely analogous to that of instinct. Knowledge 
would not have made the advances it has made, if it 
had been promoted only by persons influenced by 
pure public spirit. . The greater part of it is the gift, 
not of human but, of Divine benevolence, which has 
implanted in man a thirst after knowledge for its own 
sake, accompanied with a sort of instinctive desire, 
founded probably on sympathy, of communicating it 
to others as an ultimate end. 

It is now generally acknowledged that relief af- 
forded to want, as mere want, tends to increase that 
• want ; while the relief afforded to the sick, the in- 
firm, and the disabled, has plainly no tendency to 
multiply its own objects. Now it is remarkable, 
that the Lord Jesus employed His miraculous power 
in healing the sick continually, but in feeding the 
hungry only twice ; while the power of multiplying 
food which He then manifested, as well as His direct- 
ing the disciples to take care and gather up the frag- 
ments that remained that nothing might be lost, 
served to mark that the abstaining from any like 
procedure on other occasions was deliberate design. 
In this, besides other objects, our Lord had pro- 
bably in view to afford us some instruction, from 

c 2 



20 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

his example, as to the mode of our charity. Cer- 
tain it is, that the reasons for this distinction are 
now, and ever must be, the same as at that time. 
Now to those engaged in that important and inex- 
haustible subject of inquiry, the internal evidences 
of Christianity, it will be interesting to observe here, 
one of the instances in which the super-human wis- 
dom of Jesus forestalled the discovery of an important 
principle, often overlooked, not only by the gene- 
rality of men, but by the most experienced statesmen 
and the ablest philosophers, even in these later ages 
of extended human knowledge, and development of 
mental power. 

One of the most interesting and important points 
in Natural Theology is, the combination of physical 
laws with instincts adapted to them. One instance, 
out of many, of this principle, may be taken as a 
sample, — that of the instinct of suction, as connected 
with the whole process of rearing young animals. 
The calf sucks, and its mother equally desires to be 
disburthened of its milk. Thus there are two in- 
stincts tending the same way. Moreover, the calf 
has an appetite for grass also; it takes hold of the 
grass, chews and swallows it ; but it does not bite 
but sucks the teat. But it is also necessary that 
there should be a physical adaptation of the atmos- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 21 

phere to the instinct of the animal. It is the pres- 
sure of the atmosphere upon the part, and the with- 
drawal of that pressure within the young animal' s 
mouth, which forces out the milk. Here is an adap- 
tation of instinct to the physical constitution of the 
atmosphere. Yet again, all this would be insuffi- 
cient without the addition of that storge, or instinctive 
parental affection, which leads the dam carefully to 
watch and defend its young. The most timid ani- 
mals are ready to risk their lives, and undergo any 
hardships, to protect their young, which is a feeling 
quite distinct from the gratification felt by the dam 
from her offspring drawing her milk. Here, then, 
are several instincts, and the adaptation of the at- 
mosphere to one of those instincts, all combining 
towards the preservation of the species ; which form, 
in conjunction, as clear an indication of design as 
can be conceived. It is hardly possible to conceive 
any plainer mark of design, unless a person were 
beforehand to say that he intended to do a certain 
thing. Yet this is not all ; for the secretion of milk 
is not common to both sexes, and all ages, and all 
times. Here is the secretion of milk at a particular 
time, just corresponding with the need for it. If we 
found sickles produced at harvest, fires lighted when 
the weather is cold, and sails spread when favourable 
winds blow, we should see clearly that these things 



22 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

were designed to effect a certain end or object. Now, 
in the case of the mother and the young, there is a 
secretion of rnilk at a particular period, and in an 
animal of a distinct sex — the one which has given 
birth to the young. Yet the perpetuation of the spe- 
cies might take place if the milk had been provided 
so as to be constant in all ages and sexes. But what 
we do see is, means provided for an end, and just 
commensurate to that end. 

To perceive a reason for anything that God has 
done is far different from perceiving the reason. 

A fool can ask more questions than a wise man 
can answer ; but a wise man cannot ask more ques- 
tions than he will find a fool ready to answer. 

It usually requires that a man should have some 
confidence in his own understanding to venture to 
say, " What has been spoken is unintelligible to 

me," 

He that is not aware of his ignorance, will be 
only misled by his knowledge. 

Young students should remember, that by a con- 
fession of real ignorance must real knowledge be 



MISCELLANEOUS. 23 

gained; and even when that further knowledge is 
not gained, still even the knowledge of the ignorance 
is a great thing in itself, — so great, it seems, as to 
have constituted Socrates the wisest of his time. 

Some of the chief sources of unknown ignorance 
are to be found in our not being aware, 1. How in- 
adequate a medium language is for conveying thought. 
2. How inadequate our very minds are for the com- 
prehension of many things. 3. How little we need 
understand a word which may yet be familiar to us, 
and which we may use in reasoning. This piece of 
ignorance is closely connected with the two foregoing. 
(Hence, frequently men will accept as an explana- 
tion of a phenomenon, a mere statement of the diffi- 
culty in other words.) 4. How utterly ignorant we 
are of efficient causes ; and how the philosopher who 
refers to the law of gravitation the falling of a stone 
to the earth, no further explains the phenomenon 
than the peasant, who would say it is the nature of 
it. The philosopher knows that the stone obeys the 
same law to which all other bodies are subject, and 
to which, for convenience, he gives the name of 
gravitation. His knowledge is only more general 
than the peasant's, which, however, is a vast advan- 
tage. 5. How many words there are that express, 
not the nature of the things they are applied to, but 



24 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

the manner in which they affect us : and which there- 
fore give about as correct a notion of those things, as 
the word " crooked " would if applied to a stick half 
immersed in w^ater. (Such is the word chance, with 
all its family. ) 6. How many causes may and 
usually do, conduce to the same effect. 7. How 
liable the faculties, even of the ablest, are to occa- 
sional failure ; so that they shall overlook mistakes 
(and those often the most at variance with their own 
established notions) which, when once exposed see 
quite gross even to inferior men. 8. How much all 
are biassed, in all their moral reasonings, by self- 
love, or perhaps, rather, partiality to human nature 
and other passions. 9. Dugald Stewart would add 
very justly, How little we know of matter ; no more 
indeed than of mind ; though all are prone to attempt 
explaining the phenomena of mind by those of mat- 
ter : for what is familiar men generally consider as 
well known, though the fact is oftener otherwise. 
The errors arising from these causes, from not calcu- 
lating on them, — that is, in short, from ignorance of 
our own ignorance, have probably impeded philoso- 
phy more than all other obstacles put together. 

"A little learning" is then only (and then al- 
ways) " a dangerous thing/' when we are not aware 
of its littleness. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 25 

" A little learning is a dangerous thing," and yet 
it is what all must attain before they can arrive at 
great learning ; it is the utmost acquisition of those 
who know the most, in comparison of what they do 
not know. The field of science may be compared to 
an American forest, in which the more trees a man 
cuts down, the greater is the expanse of wood he 
sees around him. 

An error in physics and science is nothing so long 
as it is not taught as a part of religion. If taught 
as such, it becomes a lever placed underneath a 
man's religious principles, which will heave up and 
overthrow them ; for as soon as he discovers it to be 
error, he thinks he has got a demonstration of the 
falsity of the revelation, of which he has been told 
it is a part. 

It is not over education, but misdirected educa- 
tion, that is to be deprecated. 

It has been objected, that to educate the children 
of the poor disqualifies them for an humble and 
laborious station in life, — and it is indeed possible 
so to educate children as to unfit them for it : but 
this mistake does not so much consist in the amount 
of the knowledge imparted, as in the kind and the 



26 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

manner of education. Habits early engrafted on 
children, of regular attention, — of steady application 
to what they are about, — of prompt obedience to the 
directions they receive, — of cleanliness, order, and 
decent and modest behaviour, cannot but be of ad- 
vantage to them in after life, whatever their station 
may be. And certainly, their familiar acquaintance 
with the precepts and example of Him who, when 
all stations of life were at His command, chose to be 
the reputed son of a poor mechanic, and to live with 
peasants and fishermen ; or, again, of His apostle 
Paul, whose own hands ministered to his necessities, 
and to those of his companions : — such studies, I say, 
can surely never tend to unfit any one for a life of 
humble and contented industry. 

The dangers of knowledge are not to be compared 
with the dangers of ignorance. Man is more likely 
to miss his way in darkness than in twilight ; in twi- 
light than in full sun. 

While the pedantry of learning and science has 
often been dwelt upon, and deservedly ridiculed, 
there is another danger on the opposite side, which 
is rarely, if ever, mentioned ; yet it is a folly quite 
as great as the other ; of a yet more intolerable cha- 
racter, and still more hopeless. — I mean what may 



MISCELLANEOUS. 27 

be called " the pedantry of common- sense and ex- 
perience. 77 For one person who is overbearing you 
on account of his knowledge of technical terms, you 
will find five or six, still more provokingly imper- 
tinent, w T ith their common- sense and experience. 
Their common- sense will be found nothing more than 
common prejudice ; and their experience will be 
found to consist in the fact that they have done a 
thing wrong very often,, and fancy they have done 
it right. In former times, men knew by experience 
that the earth stands still, and the sun rises and 
sets. Common- sense taught them that there could 
be no antipodes ; since men could not stand with 
their heads downwards, like flies on the ceiling. 
Experience taught the King of Bantam that water 
could not become solid. And the experience and com- 
mon-sense of one of the most observant and intelli- 
gent of historians, Tacitus, convinced him that for 
a mixed government to be so framed as to combine 
the elements of royalty, aristocracy, and democracy, 
must be next to impossible, and that if such a one 
could be framed, it must inevitably be ^very speedily 
dissolved. 

Since the sailor, the physician, and every other 
practitioner, each in his own department, gives the 
preference to unassisted common- sense only in those 



28 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

cases where he himself has nothing else to trust to, 
and invariably resorts to the rules of art wherever 
he possesses the knowledge of them, it is plain that 
mankind universally bear their testimony, though 
unconsciously and often unwillingly, that systematic 
knowledge is preferable to conjectural judgments, 
and that common- sense is only our second best guide. 

There is a story told of some gentleman who, on 
being asked whether he could play on the violin, 
made answer that he really did not know whether he 
could or not, because he had never tried. There is 
at least more modesty in this expression of doubt, 
than those shew who discuss, with the most unhesi- 
tating confidence, the most difficult questions of Po- 
litical Economy, while not only ignorant, but pro- 
fessedly ignorant, and designing to continue so, of 
the whole subject ; neither having, nor pretending 
to have, nor wishing for, any fixed principles by 
which to regulate their judgment on each point. 
And this glaring absurdity they conceal from them- 
selves, and from each other, by keeping clear of the 
title by which the science is commonly designated, 
while the subjects which constitute the proper and 
sole province of that science, they do not scruple to 
submit to extemporaneous discussion. Decisions on 
questions concerning taxation, tithes, the national 



MISCELLANEOUS. 29 

debt, the poor-laws, the wages which labourers earn, 
or ought to earn, the comparative advantages of 
different modes of charity, and numberless others,' 
are boldly pronounced, by many who utterly disdain 
having turned their attention to Political Economy. 
This is as if the gentleman in the story just alluded 
to, had declared his inability to play on the violin, 
at the same time expressing his confidence that he 
could play on the fiddle. 

Those who are too lazy to take the pains of ac- 
quiring accurate knowledge on some point on which 
they are ignorant, and, at the same time, too proud 
to own their ignorance, shelter themselves under the 
convenient plea of being adherents of common- sense, 
and decry speculative doctrines, which would be per- 
nicious in practice. The censure may, in some in- 
stances, chance to be right ; and so, perhaps, might 
the grapes in the fable have been really sour — but 
the fox would have had a better right to pronounce 
upon them if he had first contrived to taste them. 
In fact, every theory which fails in practice, must, 
if duly examined, be found to contain some flaw in 
principle ; and the wiser and more effectual (though 
not the least laborious) procedure, is, to detect its 
errors, and to condemn it, not for being a theory, 
but for being an unsound one. Common-sense (at 



30 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

least the most common sort of it) seems to be little 
better than the offspring of pride and indolence. 

Men are often misled by resting on the authority 
of Experience. Not that Experience ought not to be 
allowed to have great weight, but that men are apt 
not to consider with sufficient attention what it is 
that constitutes Experience in each point; and there- 
fore need to be warned, first, that time alone does 
not constitute Experience ; so that many years may 
have passed over a man's head, without his even 
having had the same opportunities of acquiring it as 
another much younger. Secondly, that the longest 
practice in conducting any business in one way, does 
not necessarily confer any Experience in conducting 
it in a different way ; e. g. y an experienced husband- 
man, or minister of state in Persia, would be much 
at a loss in Europe. And, thirdly, that merely 
being conversant about a certain class of subjects, 
does not confer Experience in a case where the opera- 
tions, and the end proposed, are different ; as if a 
man had dealt largely in corn all his life who had 
never seen a field of wheat growing ; this man would 
doubtless have acquired by experience an accurate 
judgment of the qualities of each description of corn, 
— of the best methods of storing it, — of the arts of 
buying and selling it at proper times, &c. ; but he 



MISCELLANEOUS. 31 

would have been greatly at a loss in its cultivation, 
though he had been, in a certain way, long con- 
versant about corn. So the experience of practical 
men, which is often appealed to in opposition to those 
who are called theorists, will be sometimes found on 
an attentive examination to be, in fact, the results 
. of a more confined instead of a wider experience, or to 
consist in their having for a long time gone on in a 
certain beaten track, from which they never tried, or 
witnessed, or even imagined, a deviation. It may 
be added, that there is a proverbial maxim which 
bears witness to the advantage sometimes possessed 
by an observant by-stander over those actually en- 
gaged in any transaction, " The looker-on often sees 
more of the game than the players. Now the looker- 
on is precisely (in Greek Oeapos') the theorist" 

Common notions are not necessarily common-sense. 

The great discrepancy in the results of what are 
called Experience and Common- sense as contradistin- 
guished from theory, is accounted for by the fact, 
that men are so formed as often unconsciously to 
reason, whether well or ill, on the phenomena they 
observe, and to mix up their inferences with their 
statements of those phenomena ; so as in fact to 
theorize (however scantily or crudely) without know- 



32 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS, 

ing it. Hence it is that several different men, who 
have all had equal, or even the very same, expe- 
rience, i.e., have been witnesses or agents in the same 
transactions, will often be found to resemble so many 
different men looking at the same book : the object 
that strikes the eye is to all the same ; the difference 
of the impressions produced on the mind of each is 
referable to the difference in their minds, and propor- 
tionate to the different degrees of their knowledge 
of the characters, the language, and the subject. 

Most, if not all, who attain to a certain point of 
intellectual excellence have passed through two pre- 
vious stages. The first is, that in which a man « 
judges from obvious external appearances, adopts 
implicitly established notions and practices, assents 
without enquiry, and sees without much observation 
or, at least, observes without much ambition to ac- 
count for phenomena. 

In the second stage, he eagerly examines, and 
endeavours to account for, everything ; instead of 
being content with ignorance, he thinks his capa- 
cities equal to everything 5 he hastily rejects vulgar 
prejudices, and ridicules established customs, and is 
for altering, and reforming, and perfecting every- 
thing. The third state, which is that of mature 
judgment and enlarged views, though the most re- 



MISCELLANEOUS, 33 

mote from the first, yet practically reapproaches to 
it: he now perceives the origin of many common 
notions and practices, and the utility even of many 
which are erroneous ; he does many things and 
believes many things in common with the vulgar, 
though on different grounds ; he has just that degree 
of respect for popular belief as neither to adopt nor 
reject it hastily; and he discriminates accurately 
where truth and falsehood, right and wrong, are 
blended : he perceives the bounds of human capacity, 
and attempts not to explain what is beyond it; he 
perceives that many things which appear at first 
sight (or rather at second sight) faulty, are best as 
they are ; and of those alterations which are really 
desirable, he perceives what are, and what are not, 
attainable. These three states may not unaptly be 
compared to those of the grub, chrysalis, and but- 
terfly. The narrow views and lazy, implicit belief 
of the first state, are closely correspondent to the 
condition of the crawling grub, confined to the plant 
on which he was hatched, devouring it leaf after 
leaf, and minding nothing beyond: the chrysalis, 
wrapped up in a fine web of his own spinning, neither 
increasing in bulk nor providing for the continuance 
of the species, and lost to all useful purposes, except 
the gradual inward change which is preparing him 
for a subsequent development, is not unlike some 



34 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

modifications of that above-mentioned second stage 
of intellect ; in which a man is disgusted with com- 
mon notions and practices, without having yet formed 
a better system of his own; is entangled and en- 
closed in fine-spun speculations, which withhold him 
from practical utility, and is, for a time, withdrawn 
from the world, in self-sufficient and torpid retire- 
ment. In some, however, this second stage assumes 
a more busy and bustling character, and raises them 
to a higher and more active condition than their 
first : they take a wider range than before ; they 
attain general improvement, and approach, not only 
really but visibly, to their last point of perfection ; 
these correspond to that more active chrysalis state 
which some insects, viz., the gnat, experience. The 
chrysalis of the gnat, instead of lying torpid or 
crawling at the bottom of the water, like the grub, 
darts about in that element with an agility, which 
seems an obvious approach to the brisk and airy 
range of the finished insect. 

The third state of intellect — that of the sound and 
enlightened philosopher — is strikingly similar to that 
of the butterfly and the other various tribes of 
winged insects : their boundless range through the 
air ; the brilliant wings, especially of the butterfly ; 
its delicate diet of honey, and elegant apparatus for 
procuring it ; its light hovering from flower to flower, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 35 

with a preference, however, for the plant which it 
sprung from, and on which it lays the eggs that are 
to produce a future colony of creatures like itself : 
all correspond remarkably (as well as the curious 
Greek name of Y^X 7 /) w ^ n the richly- stored and 
cultivated mind, the refined and lofty pursuits, the 
extensive range and enlarged views of the philoso- 
pher, as also with his partial return, though on new 
principles and, as it were, hovering on wings, to 
his first notions and practices, together with his 
useful exertions for the transmission of knowledge, 
and enjoyment, and for the general good of his 
species. 

In using the above comparison, which will be 
found not only entertaining, but extremely conve- 
nient, in saving long descriptions by a mere allusion 
to it, two modifications are to be kept in view ;— 
First, that the changes from one of these states to 
another are not (as in the insect) entire and com- 
plete ; and, second, that they frequently never take 
place at all. Thus you will find, indeed, most fre- 
quently, that he who is a butterfly in some points, 
is in others a chrysalis, and in some, perhaps, still 
a grub, all at the same time ; that many remain all 
their lives in the chrysalis state, and many more live 
and die grubs. They go to church, &c, as if there 
was a certain magical efficacy in the external forms of 

d 2 



36 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

religion ; they have a blind, instinctive veneration 
for their governors and others, their superiors ; ad- 
here to the established order of things, because it is 
established, and perform a certain routine of duties, 
because they have been accustomed to do so, and 
have been told that they ought ; these are a very 
useful set of people, as far as they go, and, fre- 
quently, act and believe much more wisely than 
they are themselves aware. The chrysalis, on the 
contrary, is often a dangerous or useless animal ; for 
under this head come all w r anton innovators, infidels, 
democrats, projectors, &c. Such also are hermits, 
monks, misanthropes, sentimentalists, and castle- 
builders. Nothing indeed can be more likely to lead 
to absurd or mischievous conclusions, than a want of 
self- distrust, and a disposition to reject, with indis- 
criminate contempt, whatever has a mixture of error 
and imperfection, without perceiving, selecting, and 
retaining the good which is to be found in it ; and 
this is exactly the temper of men in the chrysalis 
state, — they want candour. 

Children are the to-morrow of society. 

If we would but duly take care of children, grown 
people would generally take care of themselves. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 37 

Those who discountenance the education of the 
poor would do well to consider that it was (so to 
speak) the great boast of the Author and Finisher 
of our faith, that "to the poor the Gospel was 
preached ;" so that if His religion be not really cal- 
culated for these, His pretensions must have been 
unfounded. Thus the very truth of His divine mis- 
sion is at issue on this question. 

Any one who says (with Mandeville in his treatise 
against charity-schools), "If a horse knew as much 
as a man, I should not like to be his rider," ought 
to add, " If a man knew as little as a horse, I should 
not like to trust him to ride." 

It is not the knowledge of something that does 
harm, but the ignorance of others. It is not the 
cultivation of this faculty, but the neglect of that. 
In ricketty children, it is not that the head, or the 
trunk, has grown too much, but that the limbs have 
not kept pace with it. 

If any of the mental faculties be overgrown, it is 
well to amputate it, in order to save the rest. It 
should be banished by a kind of ostracism, as the 
best of the Athenian citizens were, for the benefit 
of the community. 



88 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

There is a faculty, or, if you will, a quality of 
the faculties, which well deserves a distinct name ; 
for it is in itself distinct ; L e., is not implied in any 
other. It is of great practical value, and it forms 
a striking feature in the character of those who 
possess it. The word " grasp " has been used to 
express it; perhaps "Totality" would be the most 
readily understood. But it ought to have some 
name generally agreed on. It is the power of taking 
in the whole of a subject, as a whole ; of contem- 
plating many things together in their mutual rela- 
tions ; of referring any individual object presented 
to the mind, to the system, &c, with which it is 
connected, just as Cuvier, from a single fragment of 
a bone can describe the whole animal : it is a power, 
not merely of collecting and recalling the various 
parts of a subject, but of so arranging and combin- 
ing them, as to contemplate a single whole. This 
talent may be compared to that of a general, in 
whom, perhaps, the chief point of skill is, not to 
let his troops fight in detail, but to bear in his mind 
at once the situation of each separate. corps, absent 
or present, their means of communication and mu- 
tual support, and the hostile posts which they may 
command or be exposed to. There is, perhaps, no 
faculty so much the gift of nature as Totality (or 
eusynopticity ?) It may be improved by education ; 



MISCELLANEOUS. 39 

but when it is deficient, all the pains that can be 
taken will go a less way towards remedying that 
defect than almost any other. And persons of no 
education at all, will frequently possess it in a high 
degree, though, of course, from their limited know- 
ledge and want of cultivation, they have much less 
opportunity of using and displaying it. It has been 
remarked by a very acute observer, that sometimes 
one peasant will be struck with several brilliant 
passages in a sermon, and, perhaps, be able to 
repeat them, without having the least notion of the 
general outline of argument ; while another, though 
he cannot repeat a single sentence, will be able to 
give a correct account of the drift of the whole dis- 
course. — For it is not, in general, found that this 
talent is united with a particularly quick perception, 
and ready recollection of particulars as such, — though 
it will enable its possessors most wonderfully to outdo 
those of far better individual memory, in the attain- 
ment and retention of things which can be formed 
into a system, and, as it were, tied together into a 
bunch. In this respect it is like an ear for music, 
(which indeed in its own way may be called a species 
thereof,) for I do not know that those who have an 
ear retain single sounds better than others ; but they 
are enabled to retain a vast number, by means of 
their mutual relation in a tune. That their remem- 



40 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

brance of a tune is not the collective remembrance 
of the individual notes, but of their mutual relation, 
is quite evident from this, that if they begin any 
tune in a higher or lower note than they heard it, 
they will go all through, the same, and thus bring 
out notes which, it is conceivable, they never heard 
in their lives. 

This talent is in all points of view immensely 
important : it constitutes almost the whole excellence 
of some who are universally allowed to be very 
superior men ; whom ordinary people would be con- 
tent to call sensible, able, judicious, clever, &c, 
without being able to fix upon the very circumstance 
that constitutes them such, or to point out any one 
quality in which they much surpass others. This 
is the talent requisite, above all others, to form a 
politician, or any one who is concerned in any archi- 
tectonic study. A person who holds any such lead- 
ing office as that of a statesman, &c, and has not 
this talent, will be so far from turning to good ac- 
count the other talents he may possess, that they 
will only tend to make him more mischievous ; for 
he will be the better able to accomplish, with skill, 
the petty and partial schemes, and defend the narrow 
and short-sighted measures to which he will inevi- 
tably be inclined. The more clever a man is, if he 
is not wise, (wisdom, I think, expresses, or at least 



MISCELLANEOUS. 41 

implies, that species of totality which is concerned in 
practice,) the more harm he will do, even though his 
intentions are good. But if a leading man possesses 
this talent, he will do very well without a large 
portion of any other ; for there will be found plenty 
of men capable of conducting the details of business 
with great skill, though they have not a particle of 
totality, and are perhaps all the better without it. 
A good farmer may easily get labourers who can 
guide a plough or sow turnips better than himself, 
whereas one who is ever so skilful in these opera- 
tions may manage the farm very ill. 

Those who do not possess this faculty will some- 
times admire those who do, without well knowing 
why : but generally they underrate them, unless 
they also excel in other points. What is true of 
some other faculties, (with wit it is, I believe, rather 
the reverse,) is much more so of this, that no one 
can estimate it sufficiently but those who possess it 
themselves ; for it is very closely and naturally con- 
nected with that candour which puts a fair and full 
value on each various kind of excellence — on the 
" diversity of gifts of the same Spirit ;" and those 
who want it are apt to limit their admiration to ex- 
cellence in their own province, or, at least, in some 
one definite province, as they are not qualified even 
to form an adequate conception of this talent. He 



42 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

who feels the want of it, and craves after it, and 
admires those who are distinguished for it, is not 
entirely destitute of it. It may be possessed by a 
man in some particular pursuit, but not generally : 
it is, perhaps, most common in the mathematical 
sciences, from the definite, invariable, and demon- 
strable relation which, in them, one truth bears to 
another : it is most rare and precious in the affairs 
of life, from their being of an opposite nature. In 
these, the faculty assumes a most dignified rank, 
higher, perhaps, than any other whatever. When 
very general, and possessed in a high degree, it 
is, I think, necessarily connected with a very ex- 
alted tone of piety; the want of it is peculiarly 
apt to lead men of narrow ingenuity, of confined and 
partial speculations, into scepticism. In short, To- 
tality forms the very wings of the butterfly; ac- 
cording as they are unexpanded or are wanting, you 
will remain in the chrysalis state, either for the 
time, or permanently. 

To contemplate any subject in all its relations, 
and as a part of one great whole, is so far from 
leading to inaccuracy, that it is the best guard 
against it. A man of real totality has a microscope, 
as well as a telescope, always at hand. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 43 

The power of duly appreciating little things belongs 
to a great mind : a narrow-minded man has it not, 
for to him they are great things. 

To wander from a subject, and to take an enlarged 
view of it, are quite distinct. No two things are 
more different than a rambling and a comprehensive 
mind. 

The poet's remedies for the dangers of a little 
learning, 'SJDrink deep, or taste not," are both of 
them impossible. None can drink deep enough to 
be anything more than very superficial ; and every 
human being, that is not a downright idiot, must 
taste. 

As it is evident that a man cannot learn all things 
perfectly, it seems best for a man to make some 
pursuit his main object, according to, 1st, his calling, 
2nd, his natural bent, or, 3rd, his opportunities ; then, 
let him get a slight knowledge of what else is worth 
it, regulated in his choice by the same three circum- 
stances ; which should, also, determine, in great 
measure, where an elementary, and where a super- 
ficial, knowledge is desirable. Such as are of the 
most dignified and philosophical nature, are the most 
proper for elementary study ; and such as we are the 



44 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

most likely to be called upon to practise for our- 
selves, the most proper for superficial : e. g., it would 
be to most men of no practical use, and, consequently, 
not worth while, to learn by heart the meaning of 
some of the Chinese characters ; but it might be very 
well worth while to study the principles on which 
that most singular language is constructed : contra ; 
there is nothing very curious or interesting in the 
structure of the Portuguese language ; but if one 
was going to travel there, it would be worth while 
to pick up some words and phrases. If both circum- 
stances conspire, then, both kinds of information are 
to be sought ; viz., something at the beginning and 
something at the end. 

Grammar, logic, rhetoric, and metaphysics, or 
the philosophy of mind, are manifestly studies of an 
elementary nature, being concerned about the instru- 
ments which we employ in effecting our purposes ; 
and ethics, which is, in fact, a branch of meta- 
physics, may be called the elements of conduct. 
Such knowledge is far from shewy : elements do not 
much come into sight ; they are like that part of a 
bridge which is under water, and is therefore least 
admired, though it is not the work of least art and 
difficulty. On this ground it is suitable to females, 
as least leading to that pedantry which learned ladies 



MISCELLANEOUS. 45 

must ever be peculiarly liable to, as well as least 
exciting tbat jealousy to wbich they must ever be 
exposed, while learning in them continues to be a 
distinction. A woman might, in this way, be very 
learned without any one's finding it out. 

Smattering is applied to two opposites : elementary 
knowledge and superficial knowledge; some things 
should be learned a little at both ends. 

To learn a thing because it is easy, is like buying 
a bargain — purchasing what you do not want because 
you can get it cheaper than what you do want. 

Some pursuits are more valuable themselves than 
the object which is pursued, and which gives them 
their whole value. 

The analytical method is the best to introduce 
knowledge ; the synthetical, to perfect and retain it. 

Of many parts of learning, it might be said, 
" Take care of the easy things, and the hard ones 
will take care of themselves.' ' The way to make 
out a difficulty is not to puzzle at it, but to fami- 
liarize yourself with those parts which you under- 
stand, till they gradually throw light on the more 



46 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

obscure. In learning a language, read easy books 
with great care and attention ; and such a knowledge 
will be acquired as may be applied, with the greatest 
advantage, to harder ones : the same rule applies to 
learning grammar also, e.g., the anomalous verbs 
should never be learned, until the chime of the regu- 
lar verbs is as familiar as the alphabet. 

Old Lily's method is too often neglected, who 
advises, in his preface to his grammar, not to make 
a boy go through all his rules in the first place, " but 
rather let him read some pretie booke," so that the 
rules may be learnt as he sees the want of them. 

Our ancestors (and still more recently the conti- 
nental nations) were guilty of the absurdity of 
dressing up children in wigs, swords, huge buckles, 
hoops, ruffles, and all the elaborate full-dressed 
finery of grown-up people of that day. It is surely 
reasonable that the analogous absurdity in greater 
matters also, — among the rest, in that part of educa- 
tion, the exercises in composition of young students, 
— should be laid aside, and that we should in all 
points consider what is appropriate to each different 
period of life. 

The young person who, by the exercise of De- 



i 



MISCELLANEOUS. 47 

bating Societies, is hurried into a habit of fluent 

elocution — of ready extemporaneous speaking, which 

consists in thinking extempore — will be found to 

have been qualifying himself only for "the lion's 

part" in the interlude of Pyramus and Thisbe. 

"Snug. — Have you the lion's part written? Pray 

you, if it be, give it me ; for I am slow of study. 

Quine. — You may do it extempore ; for it is nothing 

but roaring." 

i 

To those engaged in Debating Societies, the 
temptation is very strong to transgress the rule, 
which every speaker ought to observe, of never 
allowing himself, in one of these mock debates, to 
maintain anything that he himself believes to be 
untrue, or to use an argument which he perceives to 
be fallacious; because, to such persons as usually 
form the majority in one of those societies, — youths 
of immature judgment, superficial, and half- educated, 
— specious falsehood and sophistry will often appear 
superior to truth and sound reasoning, and will call 
forth louder plaudits ; and the wrong side of a ques- 
tion will often afford room for such a captivating 
show of ingenuity, as to be to them more easily 
maintained than the right. And scruples of con- 
science, relative to veracity and fairness, are not 
unlikely to be silenced by the consideration that, 



48 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

after all, it is no real battle, but a tournament; 
there being no real and important measure to be 
actually decided on, but only a debate carried on for 
practice sake. 

But, unreal as is the occasion, and insignificant as 
may be the particular point, a habit may be formed 
which will not easily be unlearnt afterwards — the 
habit, so debasing to the moral character, of disre- 
garding right reason, and truth, and fair argument. 

The defect of mathematics as an exclusive or too 
predominant study, is, that it has no connection with 
human affairs, and affords no exercise of judgment, 
having no degrees of probability. 

The student of any branch of knowledge is liable 
to seek for a solution of every question on every sub- 
ject by a reference to his own favourite science ; like 
a school-boy when first intrusted with a knife, who 
is for trying its edge on everything that comes in 
his way. 

To attempt improving, by increased knowledge, a 
man who dees not know how to make use of what he 
already has, is like seeking to enlarge the prospect of 
a short-sighted man by taking him to the top of a 
hill. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 49 

The first business of a teacher, — first, not only in 
point of time, but of importance, — should be to ex- 
cite not merely a general curiosity on the subject of 
study, but a particular curiosity on particular points 
in that subject. 

To teach one who has no curiosity to learn, is to 
sow a field without ploughing it. 

Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as at- 
tention is of memory. 

Education, as usually conducted, is addressed to 
the memory alone ; and that is the reason, one rea- 
son at least, why clever boys, as they are supposed 
to be, do not turn out clever men, and vice versa. 
If a boy remembers all that is told him, he does as 
much as is usually required of him ; and no wonder, 
for he is told just everything, and is never called 
upon to exert his own powers except in retaining ; 
and then it is made a wonder that a person who has 
been so well taught, and who, perhaps, was quick 
in learning and remembering, should not prove an 
able man : which is about as reasonable as to expect 
that a capacious cistern, if filled, should be converted 
into a perennial fountain. 



50 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

Many are saved by the deficiency of their memory 
from being spoiled by their education. 

Among the intellectual qualifications for the study 
of History, the importance of a vivid imagination is 
greatly, if not wholly, overlooked. Most persons have 
been accustomed to consider Imagination as having 
no other office than to feign and falsify ; and there- 
fore, that it must tend to pervert the truth of His- 
tory and to mislead the judgment. — On the contrary, 
our view of any transaction, especially one that is 
remote in time or place, will necessarily be imperfect, 
generally incorrect, unless it embrace something 
more than the bare outline of the occurrences, — unless 
we have before the mind a lively idea of the scenes 
in which the events took place, the habits of thought 
and of feeling of the actors, and all the circumstances 
connected with the transaction ; unless, in short, we 
can in a considerable degree transport ourselves out 
of our own age, and country, and persons, and ima- 
gine ourselves the agents or spectators. It is from 
consideration of all these circumstances that we are 
enabled to form a right judgment as to the facts 
which History records, and to derive instruction from 
it. What we imagine may indeed be merely imagi- 
nary, that is, unreal ; but it may again be what ac- 
tually does or did exist. To say that Imagination, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 51 

if not regulated by sound judgment and sufficient 
knowledge, may chance to convey to us false im- 
pressions of past events, is only to say that man is 
fallible. But such false impressions are even much 
the more likely to take possession of those whose 
imagination is feeble or uncultivated. They are apt 
to imagine the things, persons, times, countries, &c, 
which they read of, as much less different from what 
they see around them, than is really the case. 

It is worthy of remark, in reference to that kind 
of Probability— the " Plausible' 7 or " Natural,"— that 
men are apt to judge amiss of situations, persons, 
and circumstances, concerning which they have no 
exact knowledge, by applying to these the measure 
of their own feelings and experience : the result of 
which is, that a correct account of these will often 
appear to them unnatural, and an erroneous one 
natural : e.g., a person born with the usual endow- 
ments of the senses is apt to attribute to the blind- 
born and the deaf-mutes, such habits of thought, and 
such a state of mind, as his own would be, if he were 
to become deaf or blind, or to be left in the dark : 
which would be very wide of the truth. That a man 
born blind would not, on obtaining sight, know 
apart, on seeing them, a ball and a cube, which he 
had been accustomed to handle, nor distinguish the 

e 2 ' 



52 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

dog from the cat, would appear to most persons un- 
acquainted with the result of experiments much less 
u natural " than the reverse. So it is also with those 
brought up free, in reference to the feelings and 
habits of thought of born slaves ; with civilized men 
in reference to savages ; and of men living in society, 
in reference to one who passes whole years in total 
solitude. I have no doubt that the admirable fiction 
of Robinson Crusoe would have been not only much 
less amusing, but to most readers less apparently 
natural, if Friday and the other savages had been 
represented with the indocility and other qualities 
which really belong to such beings as the Brazilian 
cannibals, and if the hero himself had been repre- 
sented with that half-brutish, apathetic despondency 
and carelessness about all comforts demanding steady 
exertion, which are the really natural results ,of a 
life of utter solitude, and if he had been described as 
almost losing the use of his own language instead of 
remembering the Spanish. 

Again, I remember mentioning to a very intelli- 
gent man the description given by the earliest mis- 
sionaries to New Zealand, of their introduction of the 
culture of wheat ; which he derided as an absurd fa- 
brication, but which appeared to me what might 
have been reasonably conjectured. The savages 
were familiar with bread in the form of ship-biscuit ; 



MISCELLANEOUS. 53 

and accordingly, roots being alone cultivated by 
them, and furnishing their chief food, they expected 
to find at the roots of the wheat tubers, which could 
be made into biscuits. They accordingly dug up the 
wheat, and were mortified at the failure of their 
hopes. The idea of collecting small seeds, pulver- 
izing these, and making the powder into a paste 
which was to be hardened by fire, was quite foreign 
from all their experience. Yet here an unnatural re- 
presentation would to many have appeared the more 
natural. 

Much pains, therefore, must in many cases be 
taken in giving such explanations as may put men 
on their guard against this kind of mistake, and en- 
able them to see the improbability, and sometimes 
utter impossibility, of what, at the first glance, they 
will be apt to regard as perfectly natural, and to sa- 
tisfy them that something which they were disposed 
to regard as extravagantly unnatural is just what 
might have been reasonably expected. 

In works of fiction there is a distinction to be 
made between the unnatural and the merely impro- 
bable. A fiction is unnatural when there is some 
assignable reason against the events taking place as 
described, — when men are represented as acting con- 
trary to the character assigned them, or to human 



54 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

nature in general ; as when a young lady of seven- 
teen, brought up in ease, luxury, and retirement, 
with no companions but the narrow minded and il- 
literate, displays (as a heroine usually does) under 
the most trying circumstances, such wisdom, forti- 
tude, and knowledge of the world, as the best in- 
structors and the best examples can rarely produce, 
without the aid of more mature age and longer ex- 
perience. — Indeed, one way in which the unnatural 
is often made to appear, for a time, natural, is by 
giving a lively and striking description which is cor- 
rect in its several parts, and unnatural only when 
these are combined into a whole ; like a painter who 
should give an exact picture of an English country- 
house, of a grove of palm-trees, an elephant, and an 
iceberg, all in the same landscape. Thus, a vivid 
representation of a den of infamy and degradation, 
and of an ingenious and well-disposed youth, may 
each be, in itself, so natural as to draw off for a 
time the attention from the absurdity of making 
the one arise out of the other. — But a fiction is still 
improbable, though not unnatural, when there is no 
reason to be assigned why things should not take 
place as represented, except that the overbalance of 
chances is against it ; the hero meets, in his utmost 
distress, most opportunely with the very person to 
whom he had formerly done a signal service, and 



MISCELLANEOUS. 55 

who happens to communicate to him a piece of in- 
telligence which sets all to rights. "Why should he 
not meet him as well as any one else ? All that 
can be said is, that there is no reason why he should: 
This distinction may be plainly perceived in the 
events of real life ; when anything takes place of 
such a nature as we should call in a fiction merely 
improbably, because there are many chances against 
it, we call it a lucky or unlucky accident, a singular 
coincidence, something very extraordinary, odd, cu- 
rious, &c, whereas anything which, in a fiction, 
would be called unnatural when it actually occurs 
(and such things do occur), is still called unnatural, 
inexplicable, unaccountable, inconceivable, &c, epi- 
thets which are not applied to events that have 
merely the balances of chances against them. 

A novel or tale may be compared to a picture ; a 
fable to a device. 

Poetry is imitative of prose, in the same manner 
as singing of ordinary speaking, and dancing of or- 
dinary action. 

Considering that Proverbs have been current in 
all ages and countries, it is a curious circumstance 
that so much difference of opinion should exist as to 



56 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

the utility, and as to the design of them. Some are 
accustomed to speak as if Proverbs contained a sort 
of concentrated essence of the wisdom of all ages, 
which will enable any one to judge and act aright 
on every emergency. But that Proverbs are not 
generally regarded, by those who use them, as 
necessarily propositions of universal and acknow- 
ledged truth, like mathematical axioms, is plain 
from the circumstance that many of those most in 
use, are, like the common places of Bacon, oppose 
to each other; as, e.g., "Take care of the pence, 
and the pounds will take care of themselves ;" to 
" Be not penny- wise and pound- foolish ;"- and again, 
u The more haste, the worse speed ;" or, " Wait 
awhile, that we may make an end the sooner ;" to 
"Take time by the forelock/' or, "Time and tide 
for no man bide," &c. 

It seems, I think, to be practically understood, 
that a Proverb is merely a compendious expression of 
some principle which will usually be, in different 
cases, and with or without certain modifications, 
true or false, applicable or inapplicable. When then 
a Proverb is introduced, the speaker usually employs 
it as a major-premise, and is understood to imply, 
as a minor, that the principle thus referred to is 
applicable in the existing case. And what is gained 
by the employment of the Proverb, is, that his 



MISCELLANEOUS. 57 

judgment and his reasons for it are conveyed, 
through the use of a well-known form of expression, 
clearly, and at the same time in an incomparably 
shorter space, than if he had had to explain his 
meaning in expressions framed for the occasion. 
And the brevity thus obtained is often still further 
increased by suppressing the full statement even of 
the very proverb itself, if a very common one, and 
merely alluding to it in a word or two. 

Proverbs, accordingly, are somewhat analogous 
to those medical formulas, which, being in frequent 
use, are kept ready made up in the chemist's shops, 
and which often save the framing of a distinct pre- 
scription. 

Cultivate not only the corn-fields of your mind, 
but the pleasure-grounds also. 

Every faculty and every study, however worth- 
less they may be, when not employed in the service 
of God — however debased and polluted, when de- 
voted to the service of sin — become ennobled and 
sanctified when directed, by one whose constraining 
motive is the love of Christ, towards a good object. 
Let not the Christian then think " scorn of the 
pleasant land :" — that land is the field of ancient and 
modern literature — of philosophy, in almost all its 



THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

departments — of the arts of reasoning and per- 
suasion. — Every part of it may be cultivated with 
advantage, as the land of Canaan when bestowed 
upon God's peculiar people. They were not com- 
manded to let it lie waste, as incurably polluted by 
the abominations of its first inhabitants ; but to 
cultivate it, and dwell in it, living in obedience to 
the divine laws, and dedicating its choicest fruits to 
the Lord their God. 

It is a great mistake, often made in practice, if 
not in theory, to suppose that a child's character, 
intellectual and moral, is formed by those books 
only which we put into his hands with that design. 
As hardly anything can accidentally touch the soft 
clay without stamping its mark on it, so hardly any 
reading can interest a child, without contributing in 
some degree, though the book itself be afterwards 
totally forgotten, to form the character; and the 
parents, therefore, who, merely requiring from him 
a certain course of study, pay little or no attention 
to story-books, are educating him they know not 
how. 

Those works of fiction are worse than unprofitable 
that inculcate morality, with an exclusion of all 
reference to religious principle. This is obviously 



MISCELLANEOUS. 59 

and notoriously the character of Miss Edgeworth's 
moral tales. And so entire and resolute is this 
exclusion, that it is maintained at the expehce of 
what may be called poetical truth : it destroys, in 
many instances, the probability of the tale, and the 
naturalness of the characters. That Christianity 
does exist, every one must believe as an incontro- 
vertible truth ; nor can any one deny that, whether 
true or false, it does exercise, at least is supposed to 
exercise, an influence on the feelings and conduct 
of some of the believers in it. To represent, there- 
fore, persons of various ages, sex, country, and 
station in life, as practising, on the most trying 
occasions, every kind of duty, and encountering 
every kind of danger, difficulty and hardship, while 
none of them ever makes the least reference to a 
religious motive, is as decidedly at variance with 
reality — what is called in works of fiction unnatural 
— as it would be to represent Mahomet's enthusiastic 
followers as rushing into battle without any thought 
of his promised paradise. This, therefore, is a 
blemish in point of art which every reader, possess- 
ing taste, must perceive, whatever may be his reli- 
gious or non-religious persuasion. But a far higher, 
and more important, question than that of taste is 
involved. For though Miss Edgeworth may enter- 
tain opinions which would not permit her, with con- 



60 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

sistency, to attribute more to the influence of reli- 
gion than she has done ; and in that case may stand 
acquitted, in foro conscientice, of wilfully suppress- 
ing anything which she acknowledges to be true 
and important ; yet, as a writer, it must still be 
considered as a great blemish, in the eyes at least 
of those who think differently, that virtue should be 
studiously inculcated, with scarcely any reference 
to what they regard as the mainspring of it — that 
vice should be traced to every other source except 
the want of religious principle — that the most radical 
change from worthlessness to excellence should be 
represented as wholly independent of that Agent, 
which they consider as the only one that can accom- 
plish it — and that consolation under affliction should 
be represented as derived from every source, except 
the one which they look to as the only true and sure 
one : — " Is it not because there is no God in Israel, 
that ye have sent to enquire of Baalzebub, the God 
of Ekron ?" This vital defect in such works should 
be constantly pointed out to the young reader ; and 
he should be warned that, to realize the picture 
of noble, disinterested, thorough- going virtue, pre- 
sented in such and such an instance, it is absolutely 
necessary to resort to those principles which, in 
these fictions are unnoticed. He should, in short, 
be reminded that all these " things that are lovely 



MISCELLANEOUS. 61 

and of good report," which have been placed before 
him, are the genuine fruits of the Holy Land; 
though the spies who have brought them bring also 
an evil report of that land, and would persuade us 
to remain wandering in the wilderness. 

In books designed for children, there are two 
extremes that should be avoided. The one, that 
reference to religious principles in connection with 
matters too trifling and undignified, arising from a 
well-intentioned zeal, causing a forgetfulness of the 
maxim, whose notorious truth has made it proverbial. 
" Too much familiarity breeds contempt m " and the 
other is the contrary, and still more prevailing, 
extreme, arising from the desire to preserve a due 
reverence for religion, at the expence of its useful 
application in conduct. But a line may be drawn 
which will keep clear of both extremes. We should 
not exclude the association of things sacred with 
whatever are to ourselves trifling matters, (for " these 
little things are great " to children,) but, with what- 
ever is viewed by them as trifling. Every thing is 
great or small in reference to the parties concerned. 
The private concerns of any obscure individual are 
very insignificant to the world at large ; but they 
are of great importance to himself. And all worldly 
affairs must be small in the sight of the Most High ; 



62 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

but irreverent familiarity is engendered in the mind 
of any one, then, and then only, when things sacred 
are associated with such as are, to him, insignificant 
trifles. 

Any direct attempt at moral teaching, in a ficti- 
tious narrative, and any attempt whatever to give 
scientific information will, unless managed with the 
utmost discretion, interfere with what, after all, is 
the immediate object of the writer of fiction, as of 
the poet, to please. If instruction do not join as a 
volunteer, she will do no good service. Some tales 
put one in mind of those clocks and watches which 
are condemned " a double or a treble debt to pay ;" 
which, besides their legitimate object, to shew the 
hour, tell you the day of the month or the week, 
give you a landscape for a dial plate, with the second 
hand forming the sails of a windmill, or have a 
barrel to play a tune, or an alarum to remind you of 
an engagement ; all very good things in their way : 
but so it is, that these watches never tell the time 
so well as those, in which that is the exclusive object 
of the maker. Every additional movement is an 
obstacle to the original design. 

I doubt whether Shakspere ever had any thought 
at all of making his personages speak characteris- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 63 

tically. In most instances, I conceive — probably in 
all — he drew characters correctly, because he could 
not avoid it ; and would never have attained, in that 
department, such excellence as he has, if he had 
made any studied efforts for it. And the same pro- 
bably may be said of Homer, and of those other 
writers who have excelled the most in delineating 
characters. Shakspere's peculiar genius consisted 
chiefly, I conceive, in his forming the same distinct 
and consistent idea of an imaginary person, that an 
ordinary man forms of a real and well-known indi- 
vidual. We usually conjecture, pretty accurately, 
concerning a very intimate acquaintance, how he 
would speak or act on any supposed occasion ; if any 
one should report to us his having done or said some- 
thing quite out of character, we should at once be 
struck with the inconsistency, and we often represent 
to ourselves, and describe to others, without any 
conscious effort, not only the substance of what he 
would have been likely to say, but even his charac- 
teristic phrases and looks. Shakspere could no more 
have endured an expression from the lips of Macbeth, 
inconsistent with the character originally conceived, 
than an ordinary man could attribute to his most 
respectable acquaintance the behaviour of a ruffian, 
or to a human being, the voice of a bird, or to a 
European, the features and hue of a negro. Merely 



64 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

from the vividness of the original conception, charac- 
teristic conduct and language spontaneously suggested 
themselves to the great dramatist's pen. He called 
his personages into being, and left them, as it were, 
to speak and act for themselves. 

It is no fool that can describe fools well. To in- 
vent indeed a conversation full of wisdom or of wit, 
requires that the writer should himself possess ability : 
but the converse does not hold good. Many who 
have succeeded pretty well in painting superior cha- 
racters, have failed in giving individuality to those 
weaker ones, which it is necessary to introduce in 
order to give a faithful representation of real life : 
they exhibit to us mere folly in the abstract, forget- 
ting that to the eye of a skilful naturalist, the insects 
on a leaf present as wide differences as exist between 
the elephant and the lion. Slender, and Shallow, 
and Aguecheek, as Shakspere has painted them, 
though equally fools, resemble one another no more 
than Kichard, and Macbeth, and Julius Caesar. 

Biography is allowed on all hands, to be one of 
the most attractive and profitable kinds of reading : 
now novels of the highest class being a kind of ficti- 
tious biography, bear the same relation to the real, 
that epic and tragic poetry, according to Aristotle, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 65 

bear to history; they present us (supposing of course, 
each perfect in its kind) with the general, instead of 
the particular, — tlfb probable, instead of the true ; 
and, by leaving out those accidental irregularities, 
and exceptions to general rules, which constitute the 
many improbabilities of real narrative, present us 
with a clear and abstracted view of the general rules 
themselves ; and thus concentrate, as it were, into a 
small compass, the net result of wide experience. 

Geologists complain that when they want speci- 
mens of the common rocks of a country, they receive 
curious spars ; just so, historians give us the extra- 
ordinary events, and omit just what we want — the 
everyday life of each particular time and country. 

He who knows two languages is a higher being 
than he who knows but one ; and the more dissimilar 
the better. 

One great advantage in studying philosophical 
works in a foreign language, is that an idea which 
one has to comprehend, or express, in a foreign 
language, is more distinctly understood by the mind, 
and the errors arising from the ambiguity, and other 
defects of language, more easily detected. — Many 
a voluminous treatise, the Author would thow into 

F 



66 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

the fire, if he could but be persuaded to translate it 
into Greek. Besides this prevention of the errors 
arising from the ambiguity of language, the very 
difficulty excites the attention so as to fix the thoughts 
better in the memory; meat that requires a good 
deal of chewing, is sometimes more digestible and 
nutritive, than spoon-meat that is swallowed whole. 

In the Portuguese language there are two words, 
" ser" and " estar," both answering to the English 
" to be ;" and foreigners are often much perplexed 
about the proper use of each. The rule, however, is 
a logical one, easily remembered : " estar' 7 furnishes 
the copula when the predicate is a separable-accident, 
and " ser," in all other cases. For instance, " Estar 
in Inghilteria" is " to be in England ;" Ser Inglez 
is "to be a native of England." Of these two ex- 
amples, the former is what logicians call a separable 
accident, because it may be separated from the indi- 
vidual: (e.g., he may leave England:) the latter is 
an inseparable accident, being not separable from the 
individual, (i.e., he who is a native of England can 
never be otherwise.) So also " Quern e?" "who is 
he ?" " Quern esta la ?" " who is there ?" 

Learning a language from its poets is like studying 
Botany in a garden of double flowers. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 67 

The chief use of the Classics is, that they afford 
a fixed standard of taste by which we may regulate 
our judgment, and* this without servilely adhering 
to the ancient models. — We need not steer direct for 
the fixed point, but by always observing our bearing 
to it, many eccentricities of our course will be pre- 
vented. Besides this, the study of them affords the 
same advantage, that the acquirement of a foreign 
language presents, for observing the various modes 
of thinking in different nations, at different times. 

Language often contains monuments, not noticed 
till carefully examined, of ancient laws, usages, and 
modes of thought, ! so old and forgotten, that the 
revival of them would be regarded as an innovation. 
The word " edification " is such a monument. There 
are many such of heathen superstitions, e.g.. Baccha- 
nalian, Martial, Panic, Jovial, Hearth (from a Saxon 
Goddess, Hertha,) and the names of the days of the 
week. In England people talk of being afraid of 
" Tom Poker." This is Puck, or Pug, or Pooka ; or 
Bug, or Bogle, or Bugaboo ; in Euss Bog, which, 
being the word for a spirit, is applied to the Deity. 

The laws of rude nations, in ancient times, decreed, 
that the next of kin to the person murdered should 
have satisfaction, either by the death of the murderer, 

f 2 



68 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

or by accepting (if he chose) a payment instead, just 
as if it had been his horse or ox that had been killed. 
Accordingly, the word u mercy " comes from the 
atin "merces," a payment ; and originally a man 
was not said to shew, or to bestow mercy, but to 
accept mercy ; that is, consent to spare another's life 
on receiving a ransom. 

The word " punishment " again, is derived from a 
word which, in Greek and in Latin, signified the 
payment of a ransom, compensation, or satisfaction. 
And in those languages they did not speak of inflict- 
ing and suffering punishment, but of taking vengeance, 
and paying the penalty for damages) which was 
done, either in money, (as is the law now,) or by 
submitting to blows or other personal chastisement, 
to gratify the desire of the sufferer for retaliation, 
(from the Latin " talis," like.) Hence also the 
Greek word, fcaraWaTTiu which originally signified to 
" exchange/' came to signify to " reconcile ;" since 
it was, usually, by giving and accepting a compen- 
sation, or equivalent for an injury, that parties were 
reconciled. 

It will be often found that two of the meanings of 
a word will have no connexion with one another, but 
will each have some connexion with the third. Thus 
"martyr" originally signified a witness; thence it 



MISCELLANEOUS. 69 

was applied to those who suffered in bearing testi- 
mony to Christianity ; and thence again it is often 
applied to sufferers in general : the first and third 
significations are not the least connected. Thus 
" Past " signifies originally a pillar (postum from 
pono); then, a distance marked out by posts; and 
then, the carriages, messengers, &c, that travelled 
over this distance. 

In that phenomenon in language, that both in the 
Greek and Latin, nouns of the neuter gender, 
denoting things, invariably had the nominative and 
the accusative the same, or rather, had an accusative 
only, employed as a nominative when required ; may 
there not be traced an indistinct consciousness of the 
persuasion that a mere thing is not capable of being 
an agent, which a 'person only can really be, and 
that the possession of power, strictly so called, by 
physical causes is not conceivable, or their capacity 
to maintain, any more than to produce at first, the 
system of the Universe ? — whose continued existence, 
as well as its origin, seems to depend on the con- 
tinued operation of the great Creator. — May there 
not be in this an admission that the Laws of Nature 
presuppose an agent, and are incapable of being the 
cause of their own observance ? 



70 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

The heathen mythology contains among a chaos of 
wild fables, some broken and scattered fragments of 
true history, like the organic remains of an ancient 
world, found dispersed and often hard to be ascer- 
tained, in the midst of the strata formed from the 
deposits of a deluge. Such a fragment of truth is 
in the tradition respecting the discovery of fire by 
Prometheus, i. e., the Provident, — fire being pro- 
bably no human discovery, but a gift of Provi- 
dence in the way of a revelation. Again — Phoenix 
was the name given to an imaginary bird, which 
was fabled to live a thousand years, and then to 
take fire and burn to ashes, from which a new 
Phoenix arose. Now, as the Greek name for a 
palm was also phoenix, and as it is generally sup- 
posed that it was in a dwarf palm (one of the com- 
monest shrubs in the wilderness of Sinai) that Moses 
saw the manifestation of God, in a flame of fire, 
may not the fable of the bird have arisen from 
some obscure tradition of the palm bush, which 
" burned with fire and yet was not consumed' ' ? It 
is remarkable, that in the eastern countries (more 
lately in Spain and Italy also) palm-branches have 
long been used on occasions of triumph or rejoicing, 
being reckoned an emblem of victory. 

It has always happened that, when public atten- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 71 

tion has been first directed to any new branch of 
knowledge, the result has been something like the 
exuberant fecundity which Lucretius attributes to 
the earth at its first formation — a confused assem- 
blage of mis-shapen monsters, interspersed with a 
few more perfectly formed beings, whose superior 
organization enables them to survive the spontaneous 
destruction of the rest. And when this mixture of 
truth and falsehood, of sound and unsound theories, 
is presented to the world, it has ever been found 
that the timorous, the lazy, and the undistinguish- 
ing (no inconsiderable portion of mankind), have 
denied the whole indiscriminately, as a tissue of 
mischievous absurdities. 

In combating deep-rooted prejudices, and main- 
taining unpopular and paradoxical truths, the point 
to be aimed at should be, to adduce what is sufficient, 
and not much more than is sufficient, to prove your 
conclusion. If you can but satisfy men that your 
opinion is decidedly more probable than the opposite, 
you will have carried your point more effectually 
than if you go on, much beyond this, to demon- 
strate, by a multitude of the most forcible argu- 
ments, the extreme absurdity of thinking differently, 
till you have affronted the self-esteem of some, and 
awakened the distrust of others. Some will be 



72 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

stung by a feeling of shame passing off into resent- 
ment, which stops their ears against argument. 
They would be so sorry to think they had been 
blinded to such an excess, and are so angry with 
him who is endeavouring to persuade them to think 
so, that these feelings determine them not to think 
it. They try (and it is an attempt which few per- 
sons ever make in vain) to shut their eyes against 
an humiliating conviction : and thus, the very tri- 
umphant force of the reasoning adduced, serves to 
harden them against admitting the conclusion : much 
as one may conceive Roman soldiers desperately 
holding out an untenable fortress to the last ex- 
tremity, from apprehension of being made to pass 
under the yoke by the victors, should they surrender. 
Others, again, perhaps comparatively strangers to 
the question and not prejudiced against the conclu- 
sion set forth too strongly, will sometimes have 
their suspicions roused by this very circumstance. 
" Can it be possible," they will say, "that such a 
conclusion, so very obvious as this is made to 
appear, should not have been admitted long ago? 
Is it conceivable that such and such eminent philo- 
sophers, divines, statesmen, &c, should have been 
all their lives under delusions so gross ?" Hence, 
they are apt to infer, either that the author has 
mistaken the opinions of those he imagines opposed 



MISCELLANEOUS. 73 

to him ; or else, that there is some subtle fallacy in 
his arguments. A distrust that reminds one of the 
story related by a French writer, M. Say, of some 
one who, for a wager, stood a whole day on one of 
the bridges in Paris, offering to sell a five- franc 
piece for one franc, and (naturally) not finding a 
purchaser. In this way, the very clearness and 
force of the demonstration will, with some minds, 
have an opposite tendency to the one desired. La- 
bourers who are employed in driving wedges into a 
block of wood, are careful to use blows of no greater 
force than is just sufficient. If they strike too hard, 
the elasticity of the wood will throw oat the wedge. 

The difficulty of refuting very silly and weak 
arguments, reminds one of the well-known difficult 
feat of cutting through a cushion with a sword. 

Eloquence is relative. One can no more pro- 
nounce on the eloquence of any composition than 
the wholesomeness of a medicine, without knowing 
for whom it is intended. 

It is usual to call an argument, simply, strong or 
weak, without reference to the purpose for which it 
is designed; whereas, the arguments which afford 
the most satisfaction to a candid mind, are often 



74 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

such as would have less weight in controversy than 
many others, which, again, would be the less suitable 
for the former purpose, — for instance, there are some 
of the internal evidences of Christianity, which, in 
general, are the most satisfactory to a believer's mind, 
but are not the most striking in the refutation of 
unbelievers : the arguments from Analogy on the other 
hand, which are (in refuting objections) the most 
unanswerable, are not so pleasing and consolatory. 

It may serve to illustrate what has been said, to 
remark that our judgment of the character of any 
individual, is often not originally derived from such 
circumstances as we should assign, or could ade- 
quately set forth in language, in justification of our 
opinion. When we ^undertake to give our reasons 
for thinking that some individual, with whom we are 
personally acquainted, is, or is not, a gentleman, — 
a man of taste, — humane, — public spirited, &c, — 
we of course appeal to his conduct, or his distinct 
avowal of his own sentiments ; and if these furnish 
sufficient proof of our assertions, we are admitted to 
have given good reasons for our opinion ; but it may 
be still doubted whether these were, in the first 
instance, at least, our reasons which led us to form 
that opinion. If we carefully and candidly examine 
our own minds, we shall generally find that our 
judgment was originally, (if not absolutely de- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 75 

cided), at least, strongly influenced by the person's 
looks, tones of voice, gestures, choice of expres- 
sions, and the like ; which, if stated as reasons for 
forming a conclusion, would in general appear frivo- 
lous, merely because no language is competent ade- 
quately to describe them ; but which are not neces- 
sarily insufficient grounds for beginning, at least, to 
form an opinion ; since it is notorious that there are 
many acute persons who are seldom deceived in such 
indications of character. 

In all subjects, indeed, persons unaccustomed to 
writing or discussion, but possessing natural saga- 
city, and experience in particular departments, have 
been observed to be generally unable to give a satis- 
factory reason for their judgments, even on points 
on which they are actually very good judges. This 
is a defect which it is the business of education 
to surmount or diminish. After all, however, in 
some subjects no language can adequately convey 
(to the inexperienced at least) all the indications 
which influence the judgment of an acute and prac- 
tised observer. And hence it has been justly and 
happily remarked, that " he must be an indifferent 
physician, who never takes any step for which he 
cannot assign a satisfactory reason." 

To speak perfectly well, a man must feel that he 



76 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

has got to the bottom of the subject ; and to feel this 
on occasions when, from the nature of the case, it is 
impossible he really can have done so, is inconsis- 
tent with the character of great profundity. There- 
fore, it may fairly be doubted, whether a first-rate 
man can ever be a first-rate orator, if at least he is 
to be accounted such, who (as Cicero lays down) can 
speak the best and most persuasively on any subject 
whatever that may arise. 

That kind of skill by which, in oral examination 
of witnesses, a cross examiner succeeds in alarm- 
ing, misleading, or bewildering an honest witness, 
may be characterized as the most, or one of the 
most, base and depraved of all possible employments 
of intellectual power. Nor is it by any means the 
best mode of eliciting truth. Generally speaking, 
a quiet, gentle, and straightforward, though full 
and careful, examination, will be the most adapted 
to elicit truth ; and the manoeuvres, and the brow- 
beating, which are the most adapted to confuse an 
honest, simple-minded, witness, are just what the 
dishonest one is the best prepared for. The more 
the storm blusters, the more carefully he wraps 
round him the cloak, which a warm sunshine will 
often induce him to throw off. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 77 

It is no uncommon manoeuvre of a dexterous 
sophist, when there is some argument, statement, 
scheme, &c, which he cannot directly defeat, to 
assent with seeming cordiality, but with some ex- 
ception, addition, or qualification, (as e.g., an ad- 
ditional clause in an act), which, though seemingly 
unimportant, shall entirely nullify all the rest. 
This has been humourously compared to the trick of 
the pilgrim, in the well-known tale, who "took the 
liberty to boil his peas." 

It is not only the fairest, but also the wisest, plan 
for an advocate to state objections in their full force. 
It is but a momentary and ineffective triumph that 
can be obtained by manoeuvres like those of Turnus's 
charioteer, who furiously chased the feeble stragglers 
of the army, and evaded the main front of the battle. 

Gibbon affords the most remarkable instances of 
that kind of style, in which the assumption of the 
point in question is never stated distinctly, but some 
other proposition inserted which implies it. He 
keeps it out of sight (as a dexterous thief does 
stolen goods), at the very moment he is taking it 
for granted. His way of writing reminds one of 
those persons who never dare look you full in the 
face. 



/8 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

That style which is composed chiefly of the words 
of French origin, while it is less intelligible to the 
lowest classes, is characteristic of those who, in 
cultivation of taste, are below the highest. As in 
dress, furniture, deportment, &c, so also in lan- 
guage, the dread of vulgarity, constantly besetting 
those who are half conscious that they are in danger 
of it, drives them into the opposite extreme of 
affected finery. 

Words derived from the Saxon are better under- 
stood by the lower orders of the English than those 
derived from the Latin (either directly or through 
the medium of the French), even when the latter 
are more in use among persons of education. A 
remarkable instance of this is, that while the chil- 
dren of the higher classes always call their parents 
" Papa I" and " Mamma ! " the children of the pea- 
santry usually call them by the titles of "Father!" 
and "Mother!" For those who wish to be under- 
stood by them, there is a remarkable scope for such 
a choice, from the multitude of synonymes derived 
respectively from the two elements of which our 
language is composed. The compilers of our Li- 
turgy, being anxious to reach the understanding of 
all classes, at a time when our language was in a 
less settled state than at present, availed themselves 



MISCELLANEOUS. 79 

of this circumstance, in employing many synony- 
mous, or nearly synonymous, expressions, most of 
which are of the description just alluded to. Take, 
as an instance, the Exhortation : " acknowledge" and 
"confess," — " dissemble" and "cloke," — " humble," 
and "lowly,"—" goodness" and " mercy," — " assem- 
ble" and "meet together." 

Young writers of genius ought especially to be 
admonished to ask themselves frequently, not whether 
this or that is a striking expression, but whether it 
makes the meaning more striking than another phrase 
would. • 

Unpractised composers are apt to fancy that they 
shall have the greater abundance of matter, the 
wider extent of subject they comprehend ; but ex- 
perience shows that the reverse is the fact : the more 
general and extensive view will often suggest nothing 
to the mind but vague and trite remarks ; when, 
upon narrowing the field of discussion, many in- 
teresting questions of detail present themselves. The 
applying a microscope to a small space, will give 
to view much that a wider survey would not have 
exhibited. 

Many writers have diminished the effect of their 



80 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

works by being* -scrupulous to admit nothing into 
them which had not some absolute, intrinsic, and 
independent merit, They have acted like those who 
strip off the leaves of a fruit tree, as being of them- 
selves good for nothing, with the view of securing 
more nourishment to the fruit, which in fact cannot 
attain its full maturity and flavour without them. 
Let any one cut out from the Iliad, or from Shak- 
spere's plays, everything to which the only objection 
is, its being devoid of importance or of interest in 
itself; and he will find that what is left will have 
lost more than half its charms. 

To attempt to make everything emphatic is to 
make nothing emphatic. 

To brighten the dark parts of a picture produces 
much the same result as if one had darkened the 
bright parts ; in either case there is a want of relief 
and contrast ; and Composition, as well as Painting, 
has its lights and shades, which must be distributed 
with no less skill, if we would produce the desired 
effect. 

The appearance of a too uniform elegance or state- 
liness of style, is apt to clog ; like a piece of music 
without any discord. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 81 

The word i frigid' has been properly applied to 
that style, in which ornaments that might seem to 
border on the poetical, are adopted in prose, because 
we are, in poetical prose, reminded of, and for that 
reason, disposed to miss, the " warmth" and " glow" 
of poetry. It is on the same principle, that we are 
disposed to speak of coldness in the rays of the moon, 
because they remind us of sunshine but want its 
warmth ; and that (to use an humble and more fa- 
miliar instance) an empty fire-place is apt to sug- 
gest an idea of cold. 

Johnson's style, unfortunately, is particularly easy 
of imitation, even by writers utterly destitute of his 
vigour of thought ; and such imitators are intolerable. 
They bear the same resemblance to their model, that 
the armour of the Chinese, as described by travellers, . 
consisting of thick quilted cotton covered with stiff 
glazed paper, does to that of the ancient knights ; 
equally glittering and bulky, but destitute of the 
temper and firmness which was its sole advantage. 

Some writers abound with a kind of mock-antithe- 
sis, in which the same, or nearly the same, sentiment 
which is expressed by the first clause, is repeated in 
a second ; or at least, in which there is but little of 
real contrast between the clauses which are ex- 
pressed in a contrasted form ; and which have been 

G 



82 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

compared to the false handles and keyholes with 
which furniture is decorated, that serve no other pur- 
pose than to correspond to the real ones. Much of 
Dr Johnson's writings is chargeable with this fault. 

Energetic brevity is best attained by what may 
be called a suggestive style ; such, that is, as without 
making a distinct, though brief, mention of a multi- 
tude of particulars, shall put the hearer's mind into 
the same train of thought as the speaker's, and sug- 
gest to him more than is actually expressed. Such 
a style may be compared to a good map, which 
marks distinctly the great outlines, setting down the 
principal rivers, towns, mountains, &c, leaving the 
imagination to supply the villages, hillocks, and 
streamlets ; which, if they were all inserted in their 
due proportions, would crowd the map, though, after 
all, they could not be discerned without a microscope. 

As a side view of a faint star, or, especially, of a 
comet, presents it in much greater brilliancy than a 
direct view ; so by an oblique description, by the in- 
troducing circumstances connected with, and affected 
by, the main object, but not absolutely forming part 
of it, a more striking impression shall be produced 
of anything that is in itself great and remarkable, 
than could be produced by a minute and direct de- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 83 

scription. Thus, the woman's application to the 
king of Samaria, to compel her neighbour to fulfil the 
agreement of sharing with her the infant's flesh, gives 
a more frightful impression of the horrors of the fa- 
mine than any more direct description could have 
done ; since it presents to us the picture of that hard- 
ening of the heart to every kind of horror, and that 
destruction of the ordinary state of human sentiment, 
which is the result of long continued and extreme 
misery. Nor could any detail of the particular vex- 
ations to be suffered by the exiled Jew^s for their dis- 
obedience, convey so lively an idea of them as that 
description of their result contained in the denuncia- 
tion of Moses : "In the evening thou shalt say, 
Would God it were morning ! and in the morning 
thou shalt say, Would God it were evening !" 

In the poem of Rokeby, a striking exemplifica- 
tion occurs of what has been said : Bertram, in de- 
scribing the prow r ess he had displayed as a Buccaneer 
does not particularise any of his exploits, but alludes 
to the terrible impression they had left ; 

" Panama's maids shall long look pale, 
When Risingham inspires the tale ; 
Chili's dark matrons long shall tame 
Thefroward child with Bertram's name." 
The first of dramatists, who might have been 
perhaps the first of orators, has offered some excel- 

g2 






84 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

lent exemplifications of this rule ; especially in the 
speech of Antony over Caesar's body. 

It is a fault, carefully to be avoided, to express 
feeling more vehemently than that the audience can 
go along with the speaker ; who would, in that case, 
as Cicero observes, seem like one raving among the 
sane, or intoxicated in the midst of the sober. And 
accordingly, except where from extraneous causes, the 
audience are already in an excited state, we must 
carry them forward gradually, and allow time for 
the fire to kindle. The blast which would brighten 
a strong flame would, if applied too soon, extin- 
guish the first faint spark. 

Almost every one is aware of the infectious na- 
ture of any emotion excited in a large assembly. 
The power of this reflex sympathy in increasing any 
feeling — whether pity, indignation, contempt, bash- 
fulness, the sense of the ludicrous, &c. — may be 
compared to the increase of sound by a number of 
echoes ; or of light, by a number of mirrors ; or to the 
blaze of a heap of firebrands, each of which would 
speedily have gone out if kindled separately, but which 
when thrown together, help to kindle each other. 

Action, in public speaking, should always precede 



MISCELLANEOUS. 85 

somewhat the utterance of the words. That is 
always the natural order of action. An emotion, 
struggling for utterance, produces a tendency to a 
bodily gesture, to express that emotion more quickly 
than words can be framed ; the words follow as soon 
as they can be spoken. And this being always the 
case with a real, earnest, unstudied speaker, this 
mode of placing the action foremost, gives (if it be 
otherwise appropriate), the appearance of earnest 
emotion actually present in the mind. And yet, 
boys are generally taught to employ the prescribed 
action either after, or during, the utterance of the 
words it is to enforce. This circumstance alone 
would be sufficient to convert the action of Demos- 
thenes himself into a feeble affectation, into un- 
successful and ridiculous pantomime. 

He is usually regarded as a powerful speaker, who 
is proclaimed as such by all his hearers, in conse- 
quence of their having all admitted, or being ready 
to admit, his conclusion, and thence, affording, at 
least, no proof of his power. 

It is worth observing that Arguments from Exam- 
ple, whether real or invented, are the most easily 
comprehended by the young and the uneducated; 
because they facilitate the power of abstraction — a 



86 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

power which, in such hearers, is usually the most 
imperfect. This mode of reasoning corresponds to 
a geometrical demonstration by means of a diagram ; 
in which the figure placed before the learner, is an 
individual, employed, as he soon comes to perceive, 
as a sign, though not an arbitrary sign, representing 
the whole class. The words, written or spoken, 
of any language are arbitrary: the characters of 
picture-writing, or hieroglyphics, are natural signs. 
The algebraic signs, again, are arbitrary; each 
character not being itself an individual of the class it 
represents. These last therefore correspond to the 
abstract terms of a language. 

The pleasure derived from taking in the author's 
meaning, when an ingenious comparison is employed, 
(referred by Aristotle to the pleasure of the act of 
learning), is so great, that the reader or hearer is apt 
to mistake his apprehension of this for a perception of a 
just and convincing analogy. The aptness and beauty 
of an illustration sometimes leads men to overrate, and 
sometimes to underrate, its force as an argument. 

Our Lord's parables are mostly explanatory — 
introduced for Illustration, not for Argument. His 
discourses, generally speaking, are but little argu- 
mentative. " He taught as one having authority ;" 



MISCELLANEOUS. ' 87 

stating and explaining his doctrines, and referring 
for proof to his actions" "The works that I do in 
my Father's name, they bear witness of me." 

The non-existence of a case brought forward as 
an illustration of our meaning, no more affects the 
soundness of our argument than the mistake of a 
physician, as to the disorder of a patient, affects the 
fact that such a disorder exists. 

I can well sympathize with the contempt mingled 
with indignation expressed by Cicero against certain 
philosophers, who found fault with Plato for having, 
in a case he proposes, alluded to the fabulous ring 
of Gyges, which had the virtue of making the 
wearer invisible. They had found out, it seems, 
that there never was any such ring. 

The Arrangement of Arguments is not perhaps of 
less consequence in Composition than in the Military 
Art ; in which it is well known, that with an equality 
of forces, in numbers, courage, and every other point, 
the manner in which they are drawn up, so as either 
to afford mutual support, or on the other hand, even 
to impede and annoy each other, may make the 
difference of victory or defeat. 

E. G. In the statement of the Evidences of our 
Religion, so as to give them their just weight, much 



58 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

depends on the Order in which they are placed. The 
Antecedent-probability that a Revelation should be 
given to Man, and that it should be established by 
miracles, all would allow to be, considered by itself, 
in the absence of strong direct testimony, utterly 
insufficient to establish the conclusion. On the other 
hand, miracles considered abstractedly, as represented 
to have occured, without any occasion or reason for 
them being assigned, carry with them such a strong, 
intrinsic improbability as could not be wholly sur- 
mounted even by such evidence as would fully 
establish any other matters of fact. But the evi- 
dences of the former class, however inefficient alone 
towards the establishment of the conclusion, have 
very great weight in preparing the mind for receiving 
the other arguments ; which again, though they 
would be listened to with prejudice if not so sup- 
ported, will then be allowed their just weight. The 
writers in defence of Christianity have not always 
attended to this principle ; and their opponents have 
often availed themselves of the knowledge of it, by 
combating in detail, arguments, the combined force 
of which would have been irresistible. If any one 
out of a hundred men throw a stone which strikes a 
certain object, there is but a slight probability, from 
that fact alone, that he aimed at that object ; but if 
all the hundred threw stones which struck the same 



MISCELLANEOUS. 89 

object, no one would doubt that they aimed at it, 
It is from such a combination of argument that we 
infer the existence of an intelligent Creator, from 
the marks of contrivance visible in the universe, 
though many of these are such as, taken singly, 
might well be conceived undesigned and accidental ; 
but that they should all be such is morally impossible. 
Yet opponents argue respecting the credibility of the 
Christian miracles abstractedly, as if they were in- 
sulated occurrences, without any known or conceiva- 
ble purpose ; as e.g., what testimony is sufficient to 
establish the belief that a dead man was restored to 
life ?" And then they proceed to shew that the pro- 
bability of a Revelation, abstractedly considered, is 
not such at least as to establish the fact that one has 
been given. Whereas, if it were first proved (as 
may easily be done) merely that there is no such ab- 
stract improbability of a Revelation as to exclude the 
evidence in favour of it, and that if one were given, 
it must be expected to be supported by miraculous 
evidence, then, just enough reason would be assigned 
for the occurrence of miracles, not indeed to estab- 
lish them, but to allow a fair hearing for the argu- 
ments by which they are proved. 

A great advantage in the arrangement of argu- 
ments, is possessed by the speaker over the writer. 



90 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

The speaker compels his hearers to consider the se- 
veral points brought before them, in the order which 
he thinks best. Readers, on the contrary, will some- 
times, by dipping into a book, or examining the 
table of contents, light on something so revolting to 
some prejudice, that though they might have admit- 
ted the proofs of it, if they had read it in the order 
designed, they may at once close the book in disgust. 

The arrangement of Words is of no little impor- 
tance to style. It is like the proper distribution of 
the lights in a picture ; which is hardly of less con- 
sequence than the correct and lively representation 
of the objects. 

It is no uncommon trick with some writers, by 
the invention and adoption of complete new sets of 
technical terms, to pass off long-known truths for 
prodigious discoveries, and gain the credit of uni- 
versal originality by the boldness of their innova- 
tions in language ; — like some voyagers of discovery, 
who take possession of countries, whether before 
visited or not, by formally giving them new names. 

By a multiplicity of words, the sentiment, like 
David in Saul's armour, is incumbered and op- 
pressed. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 91 

The completeness of a library does not consist in 
the number of volumes, especially if many of them 
are duplicates, but in its containing copies of each 
of the most valuable works. Nor was Lucullus's 
wardrobe, which, according to Horace, boasted five 
thousand mantles, necessarily well-stocked, if other 
articles of dress were wanting. And in like manner, 
true copiousness of language consists, not in a mul- 
titude of synonyms and circumlocutions, but in 
having at command, as far as possible, a suitable 
expression for each different modification of thought. 
The greater our command of language, the more 
concisely we shall be enabled to write. 

Many a speaker is lauded as " having a fine com- 
mand of language/ 5 of whom it might better be said, 
that " his language has a command of him." He has 
the same " command of language' 5 that a rider has of 
a horse that is running away with him. 

The censure of frequent and long parentheses, has 
led writers into the preposterous expedient of leaving 
out the marks by which they are indicated It is no 
cure to a lame man to take away his crutches. 

Fine writing ought not to be looked for in the 
treatment of scientific subjects. There is a neatness, 



92 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

indeed, and a sort of beauty resulting from the 
appearance of healthful vigour in a well-tilled corn- 
field ; but one which is overspread with blue and red 
flowers, gives no great promise of a crop. 

Pope's rhymes too often supply the defect of his 
reasons. 

What is said of human approbation as compared 
with intrinsic rectitude — that it is a very good 
thing when it happens to come incidentally, but 
must never be made an object — may be said of forci- 
ble or elegant expressions as compared with Truth. 
The desire of Truth must reign supreme, and every- 
thing else be welcomed only if coming in her train. 

When the moon shines brightly, we are apt to say, 
" How beautiful is this moon-light I" — but in the day- 
time, " How beautiful are the trees, the fields, the 
mountains V' — and, in short, all objects that are illu- 
minated : we never speak of the sun that makes them 
so. Just so, the really greatest orator shines like the 
sun, making you think much of the things he is speak- 
ing of; the second-best shines like the moon, making 
you think much of him and his eloquence. 

Without undertaking to maintain, like Quinti- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 93 

lian, that no one can be an orator who is not a vir- 
tuous man, yet, as the orator is bound as such, on 
rhetorical principles, to be exclusively intent on 
carrying his point, there certainly is a kind of moral 
excellence implied in that renunciation of all effort 
to gain approbation, or even avoid censure, except 
with a view to that point, — in that forgetfulness of 
self, which is absolutely necessary, both in the 
manner of writing, and in the delivery, to give the 
full force to what is said. The orator should adopt 
as his motto the reply of Themistocles, — " Strike, 
but hear me." 

Men of uncultivated minds generally admire the 
profundity of what is mystical and obscure- — mistak- 
ing the muddiness of the water for depth, and mag- 
nifying in their imagination what is seen through a 
fog. But this tendency becomes a grave evil, when 
this cloudy style is made use of, as it now is, by 
modern infidels, to conceal from the unwary the fact 
of their being decidedly anti-christian. The dark 
sayings of such writers may be compared to a fog- 
bank at sea, which the mariner, at first glance, 
takes for a chain of majestic mountains, but which, 
when he turns his glass upon it, proves nothing 
more than a heap of noxious vapours. 



94 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

The taste of many, in the present day, sets very 
strongly in favour of a sort of mystical sublimity,— 
of a style full of high-sounding words, sometimes 
hardly English, — which dimly expresses, or ob- 
scurely hints at, doctrines supposed to be above the 
reach of ordinary mortals, and such as ordinary 
language could not express at all. And such a 
style is admired, not only as very eloquent,- — not 
only as displaying originality of genius, — but as 
highly u philosophical r ," and as placing the writer 
far above anyone who condescends to be " practi- 
cal/' that is, who writes so that his hearers may un- 
derstand distinctly what he says, and learn some- 
thing from it, and become the wiser or the better 
for it. 

" A fico for the world," (says Ancient Pistol) 
" and worldlings base ! 
I speak of Africa and golden joys." 
Thus the gorgeous visions which floated before the 
imagination of the alchemists, of the philosophers' 
stone and the universal medicine, made them regard, 
with impatient scorn, the humble labours of metal- 
lurgy and pharmacy. 

And it is not, as might at first sight be supposed, 
that men are, in each case, led by their favourite 
writers to mistake falsehood for truth. The fault 
lies deeper. Truth — which used to be regarded as 



MISCELLANEOUS. 95 

the first point, in all Philosophy, — is, according to 
this new school, a matter of secondary consideration. 
The ingenious, the splendid, the original, the a poetic 
and ideal" — everything that may enable a man to 
be the " founder of a school/ 7 by dazzling a host of 
idolizing followers, and converting (to use Bacon's 
language), his own "Idola Species" into " Idola 
Theatri " — all this is regarded as more philosophical 
than the attainment of Truth ; and high enconiums 
are actually lavished on " the freshness of spirit, and 
breadth of view " of a writer's religious speculations, 
even when erroneous f 

Now if, even in what relates to revealed religion, 
to that which comes from the Most High, and which 
concerns man's eternal welfare, — if in these matters, 
Truth is regarded as of less account than " glorious 
imaginations " and " eloquent sublimity," — we may 
well expect that, in all other subjects, the striking 
and showy w ( ill be more thought of, than the right 
and true; and that Poetry and Oratory will not 
merely be preferred to Philosophy, but will usurp 
her place and assume her name. 

It may always be anticipated that Truth when it is 
once understood, and when it is allowed on which 
side it lies, will before long prevail. Error, on any 



96 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

point, may indeed bear rule for any length of time, 
while undetected ; but when its real character is fully 
exposed, the days of its reign is numbered. Not 
that its practical overthrow is even then immediate, 
Sound principles must not only be brought into 
notice, and clearly explained, but must be allowed 
some time to become familiar to men's minds, before 
they will be acted on. The words which Shakspere 
puts into the mouth of Dogberry, probably in mere 
sport, may be taken as a correct description of what 
actually takes place in many departments of life. 
" It hath been proved already that you are stark 
knaves ; and it will go near to be thought so 
shortly." 

It often happens that, before a popular audience, 
a greater degree of skill is requisite for maintaining 
the cause of truth than of falsehood, from the diffi- 
culty of exhibiting, in their full strength, the delicate 
distinctions on which truth sometimes depends. 

Many are misled by their admiration of what is 
called a powerful discourse, forgetting that that is 
the most powerful which best effects the object pro- 
posed. The power of a sample of gunpowder, or of 
a piece of ordnance, is. tested, not by the loudness 



MISCELLANEOUS. 97 

of the report, but by the depth of the impression 
made on the target. 

Many a meandering discourse one hears, in which 
the preacher aims at nothing, and — hits it. 

" Words," says Hobbes, " are the counters of 
wise men, and the money of fools." Hence, the 
latter can never distinguish a verbal, from a real, 
question. 

The true meaning of a word, is that which it 
expresses ; and the right name of a thing, is that 
which it is called by. 

One of the most common sources of dissension, is 
the mistaking the meaning of others ; and hence, the 
word misunderstanding is applied to disagreements 
in general. 

All men, except idiots, reason in some sort or 
another, consciously or unconsciously — many being 
in the condition of Moliere's Bourgeois Gentilhomme, « 
who had been talking prose all his life, without know- 
ing it. Now what most men will do, whether well 
or ill, it must be of the utmost importance they should 
be qualified for doing well. 

H 



98 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

As it is an advantage in algebraical calculations, 
to employ a letter of the alphabet, as a symbol to 
denote some unknown quantity, while remembering, 
that this does not make it become at once a known 
quantity ; so it is a convenience, to affix names to our 
own indistinct and imperfect notions, provided, when 
grown familiar with these names, we do not forget 
how little we know of the things themselves. 

Long and habitual attention to the different mean- 
ings of the same word, and assiduous vigilance in 
the use of it, is necessary to prevent our sliding 
insensibly from one meaning into another, and fancy- 
ing that we are still speaking of the same thing, 
because we are employing the same sound. 

It is to be observed, that the words whose ambi- 
guity is the most frequently overlooked, and is pro- 
ductive of the greatest amount of confusion of thought 
and fallacy, are among the commonest, and are those 
of whose meaning the generality consider there is 
the least room to doubt. Familiar acquaintance is 
perpetually mistaken for accurate knowledge. 

There is no mistake more common than the mis- 
take of the unquestioned for the unquestionable. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 99 

The ambiguity in all languages of almost all the 
words relating to the Physical Cause and the Logical 
Proof of anything, has produced incalculable confu- 
sion of thought, and from which it is the harder to 
escape, on account of its extending to those very 
forms of expression, which are introduced to clear 
it up. 

" Chaos umpire sits, 

And by deciding, worse embroils the fray." 

To cease to use words in their transferred sense, 
from the primary to the secondary, would, if it 
were desirable, be utterly impracticable ; but there 
cannot be too great attention to the ambiguity thus 
introduced, nor too constant watchfulness against the 
errors thence arising. l It is with words as with 
money. 1 Those who know the value of it best are 
not therefore the least liberal. We may lend readily 
and largely; and though this be done quietly and 
without ostentation, there is no harm in keeping au 
exact account in our private memorandum-book, of 
the sums, the persons, and the occasions on which 
they were lent. It may be, we shall want them 
again for our own use ; or they may be employed by 
the borrower for a wrong purpose ; or they may 
have been so long in his possession, that he begins to 
look upon them as his own. v In either of which 

h2 



100 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

cases, it is allowable, and even right, to call 
them in. 

All use is not the standard for a word, but good use. 
Those who have a right of suffrage in this matter 
are, first, educated people ; — secondly, those who are 
careful in their use of language, — yet, thirdly, free 
from affectation ; — fourthly, having no particular 
theory (like Home Tooke's) on the subject of lan- 
guage, — nor, fifthly, on the subject to which the 
terms in question belong ; — sixthly, the appeal must 
be made to their intentional and established practice, 
not to their occasional and incidental deviations from 
it. Arguments from analogy, convenience, etymo- 
logy, &c. are, in this matter, to be then only listened 
to, when use is doubtful or indifferent : they are like 
the counsellors of a despot, whose office is to sway 
his deliberations when he is in doubt, but not to 
oppose his decisions. 

Nothing, perhaps, has contributed more to the 
error of Realism than inattention to the ambiguity 
of the word " Same/ 7 which is employed to denote 
great similarity ; a sense very different from its pri- 
mary one, as applicable to a single object. When 
several persons are said to have One and the Same 
opinion — thought — -or idea, — many men, overlooking 



MISCELLANEOUS. 101 

the true simple statement of the case, which is, that 
they are all thinking alike, look for something more 
abstruse and mystical, and imagine there must be 
some one thing, in the primary sense, though not 
an individual, which is present at once in the mind 
of each of these persons : and thence readily sprung 
Plato's theory of ideas •, each of which was, accord- 
ing to him, one real, eternal, object, existing entire 
and complete in each of the individual objects that are 
known by one name. Hence, first in poetical my- 
thology, and ultimately, perhaps, in popular belief, 
Fortune, Liberty, Prudence (Minerva), a boundary 
(Lerminus), and even the Mildew of corn (Rubigo), 
&c, became personified, deified, and represented by 
statues 5 somewhat according to the process which 
is described by Swift, in his humorous manner, in 
speaking of Zeal (in the Tale of a Tub), "how from 
a notion it became a word, and from thence, in a hot 
summer, ripened into a tangible substance." An' 
old story is told of a learned gentleman, who, de- 
spising female intellect, lent to a lady, as a joke, 
Locke's Essay. When she returned it, he asked her 
what she thought of it : she replied that there seemed 
to her very many good things in it, but there was 
one word she did not clearly understand — the word 
idea (as she pronounced it, which, by the way, is 
just as we do pronounce it in the original Greek) ; 



102 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

he told her it was the feminine of "idiot." Now it 
is more than doubtful whether the learned gentleman, 
or Locke himself, understood in what sense he used 
the word, any more than the lady ; only, that she 
had the sagacity to perceive that she did not. 

Whatever personal identity does consist in, it is 
plain that it has no necessary connexion with simi- 
larity ; since, when we say of any man that he is 
greatly altered since such a time, we understand, 
and indeed imply, by the very expression, that he 
is one person, though different in several qualities ; 
else it would not be he. Every one would be ready 
to say " When I was a child, I thought as a child, 
I spake as a child, I understood as a child; but 
when I became a man, I put away childish things." 

The ambiguity of the word " plain" has, probably, 
produced many indifferent sermons. A young divine 
perceives the truth of the maxim, that "for the 
lower orders one's language cannot be too plain" 
(that is, clear and perspicuous, so as to require no 
learning nor ingenuity to understand it) : and when 
he proceeds to practice, the word " plain" indistinctly 
flits before him, as it were, and often checks him in 
the use of ornaments of style, such as metaphor, 
epithet, and antithesis, &c, which are opposed to 



MISCELLANEOUS. 103 

' plainness 7 in a totally different sense of the word ; 
being by no means necessarily adverse to perspi- 
cuity, but rather, in many cases, conducive to it ; 
as may be seen in several of the clearest of our 
Lord's discourses, which are the very ones that are 
the most richly adorned with figurative language. 
This ambiguity often causes men to write in a dry 
and bald- style, which has no advantage in point of 
perspicuity, and is least of all suited to the taste of 
the vulgar, who are pleased with an ornamental style, 
even in excess. 

The word ' Contingent,' though applied to events 
only, not to persons, yet denotes no quality in the 
events themselves, only the relation in which they 
stand to a person, who has no complete knowledge 
concerning them. For the same thing may be, at 
the same time, both certain and uncertain to different 
individuals; e.g., the life or death at a particular 
time of any one is certain to his friends on the spot ; 
uncertain or contingent to those at a distance. It is 
from overlooking this principle, obvious as it is when 
once distinctly stated, that Chance or Fortune has 
come to be regarded as a real agent, and to have 
been by the ancients personified as a goddess and re- 
presented by statues. 



104 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

An undetected ambiguity in the word l tendency ' 
has led to the doctrine, as mischievous as it is, I con- 
ceive, unfounded, that since there is a tendency in 
population to increase faster than the means of sub- 
sistence, hence, the pressure of population against 
subsistence may be expected to become greater and 
greater in each successive generation, (unless new 
and extraordinary remedies are resorted to,) and 
thus to produce a progressive diminution of human 
welfare ; — whereas it is well known, that all civilized 
countries have a greater proportionate amount of 
wealth, now, than formerly. By a " tendency " to- 
wards a certain result is sometimes meant u the exist- 
ence of a cause which, if operating unimpeded, would 
produce that result.' 7 In this sense, it may be said 
with truth that the earth, or any other body moving 
round a centre, has a tendency to fly off at a tangent, 
/. e., the centrifugal force operates in that direction, 
though it is controlled by the centripetal. But some- 
times again " a tendency towards a certain result " 
is understood to mean the existence of such a state of 
things that that result may he expected to take place" 
Now it is in these two senses that the word is used 
in the two premisses of the argument in question. 
But in this latter sense, the earth has a greater ten- 
dency to remain in its orbit than to fly off from it ; 
and (as may be proved by comparing a more bar- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 105 

barous with a more civilized period in the history of 
any country) in the progress of society, subsistence 
has a tendency to increase at .a greater rate than 
population. In this country, for instance, much as 
our population has increased within the last five cen- 
turies, it yet bears a less ratio to subsistence (though 
still a much greater than could be wished) than it 
did five hundred years ago. 

It is a common logical error, to suppose that what 
usually belongs to the thing is implied by the usual 
sense of the word. Although most noblemen pos- 
sess large estates, the word 4 nobleman ' does not im- 
ply the possession of a large estate. Although most 
birds can fly, the ordinary use of the term ' bird ■ 
does not imply this ; since the penguin and the os- 
trich are always admitted to be birds. And though, 
in a great majority of cases, it so happens, by the 
appointment of Providence, that wealth is acquired by 
labour, the ordinary use of the word l wealth ■ does 
not include this circumstance ; since every one would 
call a pearl an article of wealth, even though a man 
should chance to meet with it in eating an oyster. 
It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men 
have dived for them ; but, on the contrary, men 
dive for them because they fetch a high price. 



106 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

There are two different applications of the word 
4 Experience/ which, when not carefully distinguished, 
lead in practice to the same confusion as the employ- 
ment of it in two senses : viz., we sometimes under- 
stand our own personal Experience, sometimes Gene- 
kal Experience. Hume has availed himself of this 
(practical) ambiguity, in his Essay on Miracles ; in 
which he observes, that we have Experience of the 
frequent falsity of testimony ; but that the occurrence 
of a Miracle is contrary to our Experience, and is 
consequently what no testimony ought to be allowed 
to establish. Now had he explained whose Experi- 
ence he meant, the argument would have come to 
nothing : if he means the Experience of mankind 
universally, that is, that a Miracle has never come 
under the experience of any one ; this is palpably 
begging the question : if he means the experience 
of each individual who has never himself witnessed 
a miracle, this would establish a rule (viz., that we 
are to believe nothing of which we have not ourselves 
experienced the like), which it would argue insanity 
to act upon. Not only was the king of Bantam jus- 
tified, (as Hume himself admits) in listening to no 
evidence for the existence of Ice, but no one would 
be authorized, on this principle, to expect his own 
death : his experience informs him, directly, only that 
others have died, while every disease under which 



MISCELLANEOUS. 107 

he himself may have laboured his experience tells him 
has not terminated fatally; if he is to judge strictly oi* 
the future by the past, according to this rule, what 
should hinder him from expecting the like of all fu- 
ture diseases? 

Much sophistry has been founded on the neglect 
of the distinction between three senses of the word 
" Impossibility,' ' — or three kinds of Impossibilities, 
the mathematical, the physical, and the moral. A 
mathematical impossibility is that which involves an 
absurdity and a self-contradiction ; which may be 
called a mathematical impossibility, being irrecon- 
cilable with propositions, the truth of which is neces- 
sary and eternal ; since it amounts only to a confor- 
mity to the hypothesis we set out with. Every such 
Impossibility must be implied — though we may not 
perceive it — in the terms employed, — in short, it 
must be properly a contradiction in terms. For 
instance, that two straight lines should enclose a 
space, is not only impossible but inconceivable, as it 
would be at variance with the definition of a straight 
line. And it should be observed, that inability to 
accomplish anything which is in this sense, impos- 
sible, implies no limitation of power, and is com- 
patible even with omnipotence, in the fullest sense of 
the word. If it be proposed, to construct a triangle 



108 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

having one of its sides equal to the other two, it is 
not from a defect of power that we are precluded 
from solving such a problem as this ; since in fact 
the problem is in itself unmeaning and absurd : it is 
in reality, nothing that is required to be done. 

Secondly — What may be called a Physical Impos- 
sibility, is something at variance with the existing 
Laws of Nature, and which consequently no Being 
subject to those Laws (as we are) can surmount, but 
we can easily conceive a Being capable of bringing 
about what in the ordinary course of Nature is 
impossible. For instance, — To multiply five loaves 
into food for a multitude, or to walk on the surface of 
the waves, are things physically impossible, but imply 
no contradiction ; on the contrary, we cannot but 
suppose that the Being, if there be such an one, who 
created the Universe, is able to alter at will the 
properties of any of the substances it contains. And 
an occurrence of this character we call miraculous. 
Not but that one person may perform without super- 
natural power what is to another physically impos- 
sible ; as, for instance, a man may lift a great weight, 
which it would be physically impossible for a child to 
raise ; because it is contrary to the Laws of Nature 
that a muscle of this degree of strength should over- 
come a resistance which one of that degree is equal 
to. But if any one perform what is beyond his own 



MISCELLANEOUS. * 109 

natural powers, or the natural powers of Man uni- 
versally, he has performed a miracle. Now as has 
been above observed much sophistry has been founded 
on the neglect of the distinction between these two 
senses. It has even been contended that no evidence 
ought to induce a man of sense to admit that a mira- 
cle has taken place, on the ground that it is a thing 
impossible to man ; in other words, that it is a mira- 
cle ; for if it were not a thing impossible to man 
there would be no miracle in the case ; so that such 
an argument is palpably begging the question ; but 
it has often probably been admitted from an indis- 
tinct notion being suggested of Impossibility in the 
first sense ; in which sense (viz., that of self-contra- 
diction) it is admitted that no evidence would justify 
belief. 

Thirdly — Moral Impossibility signifies only that 
high degree of improbability which leaves no room 
for doubt. In this sense we often call a thing impos- 
sible, which implies no contradiction, or any viola- 
tion of the Laws of Nature, but which yet we are 
rationally convinced will never occur merely from 
the multitude of chances against it ; as, for instance, 
that unloaded dice should turn up the same faces one 
hundred times successively. The performance of 
anything that is morally impossible to a mere man, 
is to be reckoned a miracle, as much as if the impos- 



110 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

sibility were physical. It is morally impossible for 
poor Jewish fishermen to have framed such a system 
of ethical and religious doctrine as the Gospel ex- 
hibits. It is morally impossible for a man to foretell 
distant and improbable future events with the exac- 
titude of many of the prophecies in Scripture. 

Hume disputes against miracles as contrary to the 
course of Nature, whereas, according to him, there 
is no such thing as a course of Nature. His scepti- 
cism extends to the whole external world, — to every- 
thing except the ideas or impressions on the mind of 
the individual ; so that a miracle which is believed, 
has, in that circumstance alone, on his principles, as 
much reality as anything can have. 

It is not denial, but doubt, that is opposed to cre- 
dulity. To disbelieve is to believe. And there may 
be cases in which doubt itself may amount to the 
most extravagant incredulity, For instance, if any 
one should " doubt whether there is any such country 
as Egypt,' 7 he would be, in fact, believing this most 
incredible proposition, — that "it is possible for many 
thousands of persons unconnected with each other to 
have agreed, for successive ages, in bearing witness 
to the existence of a fictitious country, without being 
detected, contradicted, or suspected." 



MISCELLANEOUS. Ill 

All this, though self-evident, is, in practice, fre- 
quently lost sight of : the more, on account of our 
employing, in reference to the Christian religion, the 
words "Believer and Unbeliever ;" whence unthink- 
ing persons are led to take for granted that the rejec- 
tion of Christianity implies a less easy belief than 
its reception. 

A i Presumption ' in favour of any supposition, ac- 
cording to the most correct use of the term, means, 
not, (as has been sometimes erroneously imagined) a 
preponderance of probability in its favour, but, such 
a pre- occupation of the ground as implies that it must 
stand good till some sufficient reason is adduced 
against it ; in short, that the Burden of Proof lies on 
the side of him who would dispute it. The impor- 
tance of deciding on which side lies the onus pro- 
bandi is very gfeat : on the determination of this 
question the whole character of a discussion will often 
very much depend. A body of troops may be per- 
fectly adequate to the defenee of a fortress against 
any attack that may be made on it ; and yet, if, igno- 
rant of the advantage they possess, they sally forth 
into the open field, they may suffer a repulse. At any 
rate, even if strong enough to act on the offensive, 
they ought still to keep possession of their fortress. 
In like manner, if you abandon your position, by suf- 



112 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

fering the Presumption on your side to be forgotten, 
which is in fact leaving out one of, perhaps, your 
strongest arguments, you may appear to be making 
a feeble attack, instead of a triumphant defence. 

There is a Presumption in favour of every exist- 
ing institution. No one is called on (though he may 
find it advisable) to defend an existing institution, 
till some argument is adduced against it : and that 
argument ought in fairness to prove, not merely an 
actual inconvenience, but the possibility of a change 
for the better. 

Every book, again, as well as person, ought to 
be presumed harmless (and consequently the copy- 
right protected by our courts), till something is 
proved against it. 

There is a " Presumption" against anything para- 
doxical, that is, contrary to the prevailing opinion : 
it may be true, but the Burden of Proof lies with 
him who maintains it ; since men are not expected 
to abandon the prevailing belief till some reason is 
shewn. Hence it is, probably, that one often hears a 
charge of "paradox and nonsense' ' brought forward, 
as if there were some close connexion between the 
two. And, indeed, in our sense this is the case . 
for, to those who are too dull, or too prejudiced, to 
admit any notion at variance with those they have 



MISCELLANEOUS. 113 

been used to entertain, that may appear nonsense, 
which, to others, is sound sense. Thus, " Christ cru- 
cified" was "to the Jews a stumbling-block' ' (para- 
dox), " and to the Greeks, foolishness ;" because 
the one "required a sign" of a different kind from 
any that appeared ; and the others " sought after 
wisdom" in their schools of philosophy. 

Accordingly, there was a presumption against the 
Gospel in its first announcement. The burden of 
proof lay with the Jewish peasant, who claimed to 
be the promised Deliverer, in whom all the nations 
of the Earth were to be blessed. No one could be 
fairly called on to admit his pretensions, till He 
shewed cause for believing in Him. If He "had 
not done among them the works which none other 
man did, they had not had sin." 

Now the case is reversed. Christianity exists ; 
and the burden of proof lies plainly with him who 
rejects it; which, if it were not established by 
miracles, demands an explanation of that still greater 
miracle — its having been established, in defiance of 
all opposition, by human contrivance. It is indeed 
highly expedient, to bring forward more proofs of 
the divine origin of Christianity than may fairly be 
demanded of you ; but it is always desirable that it 
should be known, that all this is an argument ex 
abundanti — over and above what can fairly be called 

i 



THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

for — and the strength of the cause should be esti- 
mated accordingly. 

In the case of any doctrines professing to be essen- 
tial parts of the Gospel-revelation, the fair presump- 
tion is, that we shall find all such distinctly declared 
in Scripture. If any one maintains, on the ground 
of tradition, the necessity of some additional article 
of faith, (as, for instance, that of purgatory), or the 
propriety of a departure from the New Testament 
precepts (as, for instance, in the denial of the cup 
to the Laity in the Eucharist), the burden of proof 
lies with him. We are not called on to prove that 
there is no tradition to the purpose ; — much less, that 
no tradition can have any weight at all in any case. 
It is for him to prove, not merely generally, that 
there is such a thing as tradition, and that it is en- 
titled to respect, but, that there is a tradition rela- 
tive to each of the points which he thus maintains ; 
and that such tradition is, in each point, sufficient to 
establish that point. For want of observing this 
rule, the most vague and interminable disputes have 
often been carried on respecting tradition, generally. 

There is (according to the old maxim of u peritis 
credendum est ice arte sua") a presumption, (and a 
fair one,) in respect of each question, in favour of 



MISCELLANEOUS. 115 

the judgment of the most eminent men in the de- 
partment it pertains to, — of eminent physicians, e. g., 
in respect of medical questions, — of theologians, in 
theological, &c. And by this presumption, many of 
the Jews in our Lord's time seem to have been in- 
fluenced, when they said, " Have any of the rulers 
or of the pharisees believed on Him?" 

But there is a counter-presumption, arising from 
the circumstance that men, eminent in any depart- 
ment, are likely to regard with jealousy any one 
who professes to bring to light something unknown 
to themselves ; especially if it promise to supersede, 
if established, much of what they have been accus- 
tomed to learn, and teach, and practise. And more- 
over, in respect of the medical profession, there is 
an obvious danger of a man's being regarded as a 
dangerous experimentalist, who adopts any novelty, 
and of his thus losing practice, even among such as 
may regard him with admiration as a philosopher. 
In confirmation of this, it may be sufficient to advert 
to the cases of Harvey and Jenner. Harvey's dis- 
covery of the circulation of the blood, is said to have 
lost him most of his practice, and 'to have been 
rejected by every physician in Europe, above the age 
of forty. And Jenner' s discovery of vaccination 
had, in a minor degree, similar results. 

There is also this additional counter-presumption 

i2 



116 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

against the judgment of the proficients in any de- 
partment, that they are prone to a bias in favour of 
everything that gives the most palpable superiority 
to themselves over the uninitiated (the Idiotse), and 
aftords the greatest scope for the employment and 
display of their own peculiar acquirements. Thus, 
e. g n if there be two possible interpretations of some 
clause in an Act of Parliament, one of which ap- 
pears obvious to every reader of plain, good sense, 
and the other can be supported only by some ingeni- 
ous and far-fetched legal subtlety, a practised lawyer 
will be liable to a bias in favour of the latter, as 
setting forth the more prominently his own pecu- 
liar qualifications. And on this principle, in great 
measure, seems founded Bacon's valuable remark ; 
u Harum artium saepe pravus fit usus, ne sit nullus" 
Rather than let their knowledge and skill lie idle, they 
will be tempted to misapply them ; like a school- 
boy, who, when possessed of a knife, is for trying 
its edge on everything that comes in his way. On the 
whole, accordingly, I think that of these two opposite 
presumptions, the counter-presumption has often as 
much weight as the other, and sometimes more. 

u Men imagine," says Bacon, "that their minds 
have the command of language ; but it often happens 
that language bears rule over their mind." Some 



MISCELLANEOUS. 117 

of the weak and absurd arguments which are often 
urged against Suicide, may be traced to the influence 
of words on thoughts. When a Christian moralist 
is called on for a direct Scriptural precept against 
Suicide, instead of replying that the Bible is not 
meant for a complete code of laws, but for a system 
of motives and principles, the answer frequently 
given is, " Thou shalt do no murder" and it is 
assumed in the arguments drawn from reason, as 
well as in those from Eevelation, that Suicide is a 
species of murder ; viz., because it is called self- 
murder : and thus, deluded by a name, many are 
led to rest on an unsound argument, which, like all 
other fallacies, does more harm than good, in the 
end, to the cause of truth. Suicide, if any one 
considers the nature and not the name of it, evi- 
dently wants the most essential characteristic of 
murder, viz., the hurt and injury done to one's 
neighbour, in depriving him of life, as well as to 
others, by the insecurity they are in consequence 
liable to feel. And since no one can, strictly speak- 
ing, do injustice to himself, he cannot, in the literal 
and primary acceptation of the words, be said either 
to rob or to murder himself. He who deserts the 
post to which he is appointed by his great Master, 
and presumptuously cuts short the state of probation 
graciously allowed him for " working out his salva- 



118 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

tion" (whether by action or hy patient endurance), 
is guilty indeed of a grievous sin, but of one not the 
least analogous in its character to murder. It implies 
no inhumanity. It is much more closely allied to 
the sin of wasting life in indolence, or in trifling 
pursuits, — that life which is bestowed as a seed time 
for the harvest of immortality. What is called, in 
familiar phrase, " killing time/' is, in truth, an ap- 
proach, as far as it goes, to the destruction of one's 
own life ; for u Time is the stuff life is made of." 

The best argument against duels is, that they con- 
fer a character of daring spirit, which all in some 
degree admire, on such conduct as would otherwise 
degrade a man. If one gives another the lie, he 
would be cut as an unmannerly brute, but for the 
rule which allows you to " call him out." He is 
ready to give satisfaction, and is somewhat admired 
for his courage. But for duelling, he could give no 
satisfaction for such an offence to society, which 
would accordingly send him to Coventry. 

The defence, certainly the readiest and most con- 
cise, frequently urged by the sportsman, when accused 
of barbarity in sacrificing unoffending hares or trout 
to his amusement, is to reply, as he may safely do, 
to most of his assailants, w Why do you feed on the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 119 

flesh of the harmless sheep and ox?" and that this 
answer presses hard, is manifested by its being 
usually opposed by a palpable falsehood; viz., that 
the animals which are killed for food are sacrificed 
to our necessities, though not only men can, but a 
large proportion (probably a great majority) of the 
human race actually do, subsist in health and vigour 
without flesh-diet ; and the earth would support a 
much greater human population, were such a practice 
universal. When shamed out of this argument, they 
sometimes urge, that the brute creation would over- 
run the earth, if we did not kill them for food ; an 
argument which, if it were valid at all, would not 
justify their feeding on fish ; though, if fairly fol- 
lowed up, it would justify Swift's proposal for keep- 
ing down the excessive population of Ireland. The 
true reason, viz., that they eat flesh for the gratifi- 
cation of the palate, and have a taste for the plea- 
sures of the table, though not for the sports of the 
field, is one which they do not like to assign. 

The word " expect" is liable to an ambiguity 
which may sometimes lead, in conjunction with 
other causes, to a practical bad effect. It is some- 
times used in the sense of " anticipate/' " calculate 
on," &c. (e'/W/fw), in short, " consider as probable" 
sometimes for " require or demand as reasonable," — 



120 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

u consider as right" (af uD). Thus, I may fairly, 
"expect" (agiiv) that one who has received kindness 
from me, should protect me in distress ; yet I may 
have reason to expect (e^sr/gea?) that he will not. 
" England expects every man to do his duty;" but 
it would be chimerical to expect, that is, anticipate, 
a universal performance of duty. Hence, when men 
of great revenues, whether civil or ecclesiastical, 
live in the splendour and sensuality of Sardanapalus, 
they are apt to plead that this is expected of them ; 
which may be perhaps sometimes true, in the sense 
that such conduct is anticipated as probable; not 
true, as implying that it is required or approved. 
What may reasonably be expected (in one sense of 
the word), must be precisely the practice of the 
majority ; since it is the majority of instances that 
constitutes probability: what may reasonably be 
expected (in the other sense), is something much 
beyond the practice of the generality ; as long, at 
least, as it shall be true, that u narrow is the way 
that leadeth to life, and few there be that find it." 

The expressions u Matter (or question) of Fact," 
and u Matter of Opinion," are not employed by all 
persons with precision and uniformity. Decidedly 
it is not meant, by those, at least, who use language 
with any precision, that there is greater certainty, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 121 

or more general and ready agreement, in the one 
case than in the other. By a u Matter (or ques- 
tion) of Opinion," is understood anything respecting 
which an exercise of judgment would be called for 
on the part of those who should have certain objects 
before them, and who might conceivably disagree in 
their judgment thereupon : for instance, that one of 
Alexander's friends did, or did not, administer 
poison to him, every one would allow to be a 
question of fact, though it may be involved in inex- 
tricable doubt ; while the question, What sort of an 
act that was, suppposing it to have taken place, all 
w r ould allow to be a question of opinion, though 
probably all would agree in their opinion thereupon. 

Again, it is not apparently necessary that a 
" Matter of Fact," in order to constitute it such, 
should have ever been actually submitted — or likely 
to be so — to the senses of any human being ; only, 
that it should be one which conceivably might be so 
submitted : for instance, whether there is a lake in 
the centre of New Holland, — whether there is land 
at the South Pole — whether the moon is inhabited, 
- — would generally be admitted to be questions of 
fact, although no one has been able to bear testi- 
mony concerning them; and, in the last case, we 
are morally certain that no one ever will. 

And in this, and many other cases, different 



122 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

questions, very closely connected, are very apt to 
be confounded together, and the proofs belonging 
to one of them brought forward as pertaining to the 
other : for instance, a case of alleged prophecy shall 
be in question : the event, said to have been foretold, 
shall be established as a fact ; and also the utterance 
of the supposed prediction before the event ; and this 
will perhaps be assumed as proof of that which is 
in reality another question, and a " question of 
opinion;" whether the supposed prophecy related 
to the event in question ; and again, whether it were 
merely a conjecture of human sagacity, or such as 
to imply superhuman prescience. 

Again, whether a certain passage occurs in certain 
Manuscripts of the Greek Testament, is evidently a 
question of Fact ; but whether the words imply such 
and such a doctrine, — however indubitable it may 
justly appear to us, — is evidently a " Matter of 
Opinion.' ' 

It is to be observed also, that, as there may be 
(as I have just said), questions of Opinion relative to 
Facts, so there may also be questions of Fact relative 
to Opinions ; that is, that such and such Opinions 
were, or were not, maintained at such a time and 
place, by such and such persons, is a question of Fact. 

It is no wonder that the longest mathematical de- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 123 

monstration should be so much more easily con- 
structed and understood than a much shorter train 
of just reasoning concerning real facts. For, not 
only are the mathematical definitions very few, but 
the axioms are still fewer, and always employed in 
the same simple form ; and both are, for the most 
part, laid down and placed before the student in the 
outset ; while, on the other hand, in all reasonings 
that regard matters of fact, fresh and fresh facts 
are introduced almost at every step to a "very great 
number ; and the maxims employed admit of, and 
require, continual modifications in the application of 
them. The former has been aptly compared to a 
long and steep, but even and regular, flight of steps, 
which tries the breath, and the strength, and the 
perseverance only ; while the latter resembles a short 
but rugged and uneven ascent up a precipice, which 
requires a quick eye, agile limbs, and a firm step ; 
and in which we have to tread, now on this side, now 
on that,— ever considering, as we proceed, whether 
this or that projection will afford room for our foot, 
or whether some loose stone may not slide from un- 
der us. 

The knowledge of facts, whether much or little, 
will often be worse than useless to those who are de- 
ficient in the power of discriminating and selecting ; 



124 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

just as food is to a body, whose digestive system is so 
much impaired as to be incapable of separating the 
nutritious portions. 

Men of very inferior powers, sometimes, by im- 
mediate observation, discover perfectly new facts em- 
pirically ; and may thus be of service in furnishing 
materials to those master minds that, by their skil- 
ful selection and combining of truths long and gene- 
rally known, elicit important, and hitherto unthought 
of, conclusions. Theirs are master minds, to whom 
the others stand in the same relation as the brick- 
maker or stone quarrier to the architect. 

Information, as to matters of fact, may easily 
be referred in the mind to the person from whom 
we have derived it : but scientific truths, when 
thoroughly embraced, become much more a part 
of the mind, as it were ; since they rest," not on the 
authority of the instructor, but on reasoning from 
data, which we ourselves furnish : they are scions 
engrafted on the stems previously rooted in our own 
soil ; and we are apt to confound them with its 
indigenous productions. 

Information gives us absolutely new knowledge ; 
Instruction developes what we had. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 125 

The office of a philosopher is to infer ; of an ad- 
vocate, to prove. 

The number of those who are, not only qualified 
to appreciate justly the force of arguments, but who 
are also accustomed to this employment of their 
faculties, is probably less than is supposed. When 
a man maintains, on several points, opinions which 
are true, and assigns good and sufficient reasons for 
them, both he himself and others are apt to conclude 
at once that he is convinced by those reasons ; 
whereas the truth will often be, that he has taken 
upon trust both the premises and the conclusion, as 
well as the connexion between them ; that he is 
indolently repeating what he has heard, without 
performing any process of reasoning in his own 
mind ; and that, if he had not been early trained or 
predisposed to admit the conclusion, and it had been 
presented to him as a novelty, the arguments which 
support it, though in themselves valid, would have 
had little or no weight with him. If such a man 
then enters on any new field of enquiry, his de- 
ficiencies at once become apparent. He is in a situa- 
tion analagous to that of children, taught by a 
negligent or unskilful master, who are often found 
able, apparently, to read with great fluency in a book 
they have been accustomed to, though, in reality, they 



126 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

are not so much reading, as repeating by rote the 
sentences they have often gone over ; and, if tried 
in a new book, are at a loss to put two syllables 
together. 

People often read good books because it is a good 
thing to read good books ; and because everything 
they have read is perfectly good and true, they set 
it down among the praiseworthy actions of their life ; 
instead of regarding such studies as means, and 
means only, towards a further end, the non- attain- 
ment of which renders them as utterly worthless as 
the act of sowing the land with seed which never 
comes up. This fully accounts for the approbation 
bestowed on religious and moral books, when they 
are utterly undeserving of it. If a farmer was paid 
for sowing his seed merely, and had no anxiety to 
get a good crop, he would not distinguish very 
accurately between good seed and bad. Some may 
think that a book of this kind, if it does no good, 
can at least do no harm : not so ; for whatever 
furnishes a man with the pretence of performing a 
duty when he is not, so far does harm. 

It is so very easy to gain the approbation of those 
who are already of your opinion, and so very diffi- 
cult to change any one's opinion, that nearly the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 127 

whole effect of writing, as far as concerns propaga- 
tion of doctrines, is upon minds on that point fallow 
— not preoccupied by an opinion, or wavering. 

The effect produced by any book or speech of an 
argumentative character, on any subjects on which 
diversity of opinion prevails, may be compared — 
supposing the argument to be of any weight — to the 
effects of a fire-engine on a conflagration. That 
portion of the water which falls on solid stone walls, 
is poured out where it is not needed. That, again, 
which falls on blazing beams and rafters, is cast off 
in volumes of hissing steam, and will seldom avail 
to quench the fire. But that which is poured on 
wood work that is just beginning to kindle, may stop 
the burning ; and that which wets the rafters not yet 
ignited, but in danger, may save them from catching 
fire. Even so, those who already concur with the 
writer as to some point, will feel gratified with, and 
perhaps bestow high commendation on an able defence 
of the opinions they already held ; and those, again, 
who have fully made up their minds on the opposite 
side, are more likely to be displeased than to be 
convinced. But both of these parties are left nearly 
in the same mind as before. Those, however, who 
are in a hesitating and doubtful state, may very 
likely be decided by forcible arguments. And those 



128 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

who have not hitherto considered the subject, may 
be induced to adopt opinions which they find sup- 
ported by the strongest reasons. But the readiest 
and warmest approbation an author meets with, will 
usually be from those whom he has not convinced, 
because they were convinced already. And the 
effect, the most important and the most difficult to 
be produced, he will usually, when he does produce 
it, hear the least of. Those whom he may have 
induced to reconsider, and gradually to alter, pre- 
viously fixed opinions, are not likely, for a time at 
least, to be very forward in proclaiming the change. 

If there could be a book (on moral or religious 
subjects) which every one thought very convincing, 
this would be a sign that it had convinced nobody. 

"What most people most readily and most cordially 
approve, is the echo of their own sentiments ; and 
whatever effect this may produce, if any, must be 
short-lived. We hear of volcanic islands thrown up 
in a few days to a formidable size, and, in a few 
weeks or months, sinking down again or washed 
away ; while other islands, which are the summits of 
banks covered with weed and drift sand, continue 
slowly increasing year after year, century after cen- 
tury. The man that is in a hurry to see the full 



MISCELLANEOUS. 129 

effects of his own tillage, should cultivate annuals 
and not forest trees. 

Observation digs the materials ; Reasoning erects 
the building. 

The idea of enlightening incorrect reasoners by 
supplying them with additional facts, is an error 
similar to that of the two boys, in the tale of Sand- 
ford and Merton, who, having put to a house a flat 
roof, through which, of course, the rain came, 
vainly thought to remedy their mistake by laying 
on more straw. 

Susceptibility is the foundation of attachment ; 
but it is strength of feeling that ripens it into a 
genial and durable friendship. 

So far as any human fault or folly is peculiar to 
any particular age or country, its effects may be ex- 
pected to pass away soon, without spreading very 
widely ; but so far as it belongs to human nature in 
general, we must expect to find the evil effects of it 
reappearing, again and again, in various forms, in all 
ages, and in various regions. Plants brought from 
a foreign land, and cultivated by human care, may 



130 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 



often be, by human care, extirpated, or may even 
perish for want of care ; but the indigenous product 
of the soil, even when seemingly eradicated, will 
again and again be found springing up afresh : 

" Sponte sua quae se tollunt in luminis oras 
Infecunda quidern, sed laita et fortia surgunt, 
Quippe sola natura subest." 

Ten thousand of the greatest faults in our neigh- 
bours, are of less consequence to us than one of the 
smallest in ourselves. 

The relief that is afforded to mere want, as want, 
tends to increase that want. 

Vices and frailties correct each other, like acids 
and alkalies. If each vicious man had but one vice, 
I do not know how the world could go on. 

The power of duly appreciating little things, be- 
longeth to a great mind : a narrow-minded man has 
it not ; for to him they are great things. 

Many a one is apt to conclude that whatever is 
left to a man's discretion, is left to his indiscretion. 

Many a would-be great knave is, from intellectual . 
deficiency, only a small knave. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 131 

What is very clearly demonstrated will often 
appear to a superficial reader so evident as to need 
no demonstration ; and the ability which has been 
employed to make it thus plain and evident, is dis- 
paraged in consequence of its own success. When 
the hills are completely cut away, and the chasm 
bridged over, and the swamps rendered firm, so that 
the steam-carriage glides smoothly along, the travel- 
ler is apt to think lightly of the obstacles that were 
to be overcome. 

The task allotted to the Christian in all human 
transactions, is not to obtain men's gratitude and 
good- will ; but to deserve it. 

It is not enough for the Christian to conform his 
faith to the doctrines of his religion ; but he must 
also conform his temper to its spirit. 

A member of any Church that acknowledges the 
divine authority of Scripture, and yet maintains 
persecuting dogmas, must be inconsistent, whether 
he hold to the Gospel against his Church, or to his 
Church against the Gospel. 

As so many men are in several points, worse than 

k2 



132 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

their principles, so men may occasionally be found 
better than some of their principles. 

Some who are continually calling attention to the 
empty or half- empty churches in some parishes, 
while wholly overlooking the three times as many 
parishes in which there is a distressing want of 
church accommodation, seem to proceed in the way 
that Balak did with Balaam, " Come now and I will 
bring thee to another place, where thou shalt see but 
the uttermost part of them and shalt not see them all ; 
and curse me them from thence/' 

Every page of history furnishes instruction where- 
with to judge of the future by the past, and to supply 
rules, not only of public expediency, but also of 
private duty. 

In considering remote events, too, little allowance 
is made, while in recent cases, too much is made, for 
the circumstances in which the agents were placed. 

We ought never to look back on our emancipation 
from a corrupt system, without also looking forward 
to guard vigilantly against the like corruptions. 

Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of 



MISCELLANEOUS. 133 

the law, is an instance of the failure of that penalty 
in effecting its purpose, which is, to deter. 

Many a man renounces the shackles of Papal 
infallibility, as it were in a spirit of rivalry, that he 
may become a Pope to himself. 

No general principles can ever teach their own ap- 
plication, or supersede the exercise of practical good 
sense, cautious deliberation and Christian candour. 

It is one thing to wish to have Truth on our side, 
and another thing to wish to be on the side of Truth. 

A preacher should ask himself, " Am I about to 
preach because I want to say something, or because 
I have something to say ?" 

There are some persons who are ready to denounce, 
as persecuting, every system which does not leave 
them at liberty to persecute others. 

To inflict, or to denounce, punishment, must be 
either a duty or a sin. 

Stumbling-blocks in religion will always be found 
by those who seek them. 



134 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

Charity is not to be attained, at the expense of 
our faith and our hope. 

The ordinary popular use of the words " moral " 
and "morality" is much more limited than what 
may be called the philosophical sense of them : the. 
latter comprehending the tempers, as well as the 
outward acts to which the popular sense is, usually, 
restricted. 

It is too often forgotten, that better does not neces- 
sarily imply " good." 

He only is exempt from failures, who makes no 

efforts. 

Some persons see no medium between regarding a 
point as absolutely essential, or absolutely indifferent. 

Men find self- congratulation more agreeable than 
self-examination. 

Good manners are a part of good morals. 

Though a course of action be in itself better than 
the one a man judges to be right, it would not be 



MISCELLANEOUS. 135 

right for him to take it, if at variance with his own 
convictions. 

We must beware of hastily taxing with wilful 
blindness, those whose views are limited only by 
the lowness of their position. 

Never, while the world lasts, will the inconsiderate 
and the violent be prevented from confounding to- 
gether things, which differ only in the point which 
is of most essential importance, or from indiscrimi- 
nately censuring whatever has been much abused. 

Falsehood is difficult to be maintained. When the 
materials of a building are solid blocks of stone, very 
rude architecture will suffice ; but a structure of rotten 
materials needs the most careful adjustment to make 
it stand at all. 

He who points out the improbability of a current 
story, is not bound to suggest an hypothesis of his 
own. One may surely be allowed to hesitate in ad- 
mitting the stories, which the ancient poets tell, of 
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions being caused by 
imprisoned giants, without being called upon satis- 
factorily to account for these phenomena. 



136 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

The very difference between the cases of those in 
different ages and countries from our own, makes 
the examples adduced from them more instructive, 
by proving that they are not copied the one from the 
other, but originate in a common and deep-seated 
source. 

Men underrate the danger of any evil that has 
been escaped. 

Xo original and essentially inherent principle of 
the human mind, any more than any organ of the 
human body, is in itself either mischievous or useless. 
The maxim that Nature does nothing in vain, is not 
more true in the material, than in the moral, world. 

It is a folly to expect men to do all that they may 
reasonably be expected to do. 

Most men are admirers of justice, — when justice 
happens to be on their side. 

We should ever regard that as the worst extreme, 
to which we are by nature the more prone. 

In proportion as we approach towards a state of 
anarchy, we are always approaching to the condition 



MISCELLANEOUS. 137 

of the worst kind of oligarchy, — the domineering of 
a few violent and unscrupulous men over the rest. 

Csesar was not the only man who would rather be 
the first in a village than the second at Eome. 

To detect the excess of a disposition totally unlike 
our own, is as easy as it is of little concern to us ; 
while to guard against our own peculiar propensities, 
is at once the hardest task, and, to ourselves, incom- 
parably the most important. 

The more confidently secure we feel against our 
liability to any error, to which in fact we are liable, 
the greater must be our danger of falling into it. 

In our judgment of human transactions, the law 
of optics is reversed ; we see the most indistinctly, 
the objects which are close around us. 

Of all hostile feelings, Envy is perhaps the hardest 
to be subdued, because hardly any one owns it, even 
to himself ; but looks out for one pretext after another 
to justify his hostility. 

The mistake a man makes by a false statement 
advantageous to his views, is like the mistake a man 



138 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

sometimes makes of taking a better umbrella by 
chance, instead of his own, and then, not thinking it 
worth while to return it. 

Whatever is worth mentioning at all, is worth 
mentioning correctly. 

He who has trumpeted forth an accusation, ought 
not to think it sufficient to whisper his recantation. 

Some are satisfied with not cherishing faults in 
themselves, while they are quietly tolerating them. 
A plant may be in a garden from two causes, either 
from being planted designedly, or found there and 
left there. Either implies some degree of approval. 

To enquire how w r e would act in any supposed 
case, even when such as could not possibly occur, is 
to apply a test which decomposes, as the chemists 
say, the complex mass of our motives, and enables 
us to ascertain on what principle we are acting. 

Men often regard as zeal for God's honour, what 
is perhaps, in truth rather zeal for their own honour. 

An evil propensity confessed is half cured : people 



MISCELLANEOUS. 139 

irritate themselves, by trying to prove that they are 
not irritable. 

So intimate is the connection of different errors, 
that they will generally be found, if not directly to 
generate, yet mutually to foster and promote, one 
another. 

So strong is the combined attraction of Antiquity 
and Novelty, that any system that offers gratification 
to the desire for both, needs a very small portion of 
truth to gain it eager and general acceptance. 

Men are not always right in their use of their rights. 

The imprudent spendthrift, finding that he is able 
to afford this, or that, or the other, expence, forgets 
that all of them together will ruin him. 

A statesman, without wisdom, does mischief in 
proportion as he is clever. 

Some men's reputation seem like seed-wheat, 
which thrives best when brought from a distance. 

Our best feelings should ever be under the control 
of our best judgment. 




140 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

Affectation seems rather a sign of modesty, than 
of conceit. Who would paint if they thought their 
natural complexion good ? But many confound to- 
gether vanity and self-conceit, which are different in 
themselves, and often tend to opposite results. 

In the strong objections to every plan that may be 
proposed, men are apt to forget the strong objections 
there are to adopting no plan at all. A man may 
have it in his power to go to a place where he wishes 
to be, either by sea or by land, and there may be 
advantages in each mode of travelling, but if he is 
resolved to forego none of those advantages, he can 
never set out. 

If a man is not too mad to intend what he does, 
he is not too mad to be punished for it. 

Some speak so vehemently of their feeling no 
anger and very great contempt for any attack made 
upon them, as to raise a suspicion that they feel just 
the reverse. 

It is remarkable that a man is usually less offended 
with those who profess to understand what he does 
not, than with those who acknowledge their inability 
to comprehend what he holds to be clearly intelli- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 141 

gible ; since these last will appear to entertain a 
suspicion, at least, of what is, probably, the truth, 
that he has been deluding himself with empty fal- 
lacies, and grasping a phantom. 

How easy it is to forgive injuries, compared with 
many things that are no injuries ! But people may 
object to this use of the word forgive ; we will not 
insist on using it, though Miss Elizabeth Smith says, 
" A woman has need of extraordinary gentleness and 
modesty to he forgiven for possessing superior ability 
and learning/ ' And she, I believe, was forgiven, 
accordingly. 

But not to insist on a word, — -instead of "forgive" 
say "judge fairly, and feel kindly," towards 

(1.) One who adheres to the views which were 
yours, and which you have changed (this was one 
of Paul's trials). 

(2.) One who had proved right in the warning and 
advice he gave you, and which you rejected. 

" I bear you no ill will Lizzy," says Mr. Bennett 
in Miss Austen's Pride and Prejudice, "for being 
justified in the warning you gave me : considering 
how matters have turned out, I think this shows 
some magnanimity." 

(3.) One who is preferred to you by the woman 
you are in love with ; or has carried off some other 



142 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

prize from you : especially if he has attained with 
little or no exertion, what you have been striving 
hard for, without success. (Vid. Arist. Rhetoric, 
(pOvj/09), 

(4.) One who has succeeded in some enterprise 
when you had predicted failure. 

In all these and some other cases, there is evi- 
dently no injury : and therefore " I hate v some will 
say, "to hear forgiveness spoken of, when in fact 
there is nothing to forgive." Be it so : but do not 
go on to imagine that you have therefore no need to 
keep down, with strong effort, just the same kind of 
feelings that you would have, if there had been an 
injury. 

If you take for granted because there is no injury, 
therefore there is no care needful to repress such feel- 
ings, inasmuch as they are so manifestly unjust, the 
result will be that you will not repress, but indulge 
them. You will never acknowledge to yourself the 
real ground of your resentful feelings, (as you do, 
in the case of an injury) but you will find out some 
other ground, real or imaginary : " it is not that the 
man adheres to his own original views ; but that he 
maintains them with uncharitable violence : it is not 
that I grudge him his success; but that he is too 
much puffed up with it ; or he is not fully deserving 
ofit"&c, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 143 

If you cultivate, in the right way, the habit of 
forgiving injuries, you will acquire it ; and not else. 
And if you are content with thiSj and do not cultivate 
that candour which I have been speaking of, you will 
be deficient in that : for be assured it does not grow 
wild in the soil of the human heart. And the 
groundlessness and injustice of the feelings which 
will grow wild there, is a reason, not why you 
should neglect to extirpate them, but why you should 
be the more ashamed of not doing so. 

To expect to tranquillize and benefit a country by 
gratifying its agitators, would be like the practice of 
the superstitious of old, with their sympathetic pow- 
ders and ointments ; who instead of applying medi- 
caments to the wound, contented themselves with 
salving the sword which had inflicted it. Since the 
days of Dane-gelt downwards, nay, since the world 
was created, nothing but evil has resulted from con- 
cessions made to intimidation. 

Conflicting prejudices serve as an imperfect substi- 
tute for impartiality. And if no wise and moderate 
measures were framed and adopted, except by wise 
and moderate men, the world would go on much 
worse than it does. 



144 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

That is, in a great degree, true of all men, which 
was said of the Athenians, that they were like sheep, 
of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one. 

Kindle the dry sticks, and the green ones will 
catch. 

If you begin by attempting to reform, and to in- 
struct, those who need reformation and instruction the 
most, you will often find them unwilling to listen to 
you. Like green sticks, they will not catch fire. 
But if you begin with the most teachable and best 
disposed, when you have succeeded in improving 
these, they will be a help to you in improving the 
others. 

Children and fools should not see a work that is 
half done. They have not the sense to see what the 
artist is designing. The whole of this world that 
we see, is a work half done ; and thence fools are 
apt to find fault with Providence. 

Clouds afar look "black or gay ; 
Closely seen, tliey all are grey. 

It is just so with many a public man, who will be 
found by those immediately around him, neither so 
detestable nor so admirable, as perhaps he is thought 
by opposite parties. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 145 

A character which will not defend itself, is seldom 
worth defending. 

Silver gilt "ndll often pass, 
Silver for gold, or else for brass. 

Some men who, at the first glance, give the idea 
of something very superior indeed, rather beyond 
what they really are, are ultimately either under- 
rated or overrated. 

The generality of mankind are as good and as 
wise as the generality. 

A man's coat may well fit him, when it is made 
to his measure. 

Never is the mind less fitted for self-examination, 
than when most occupied in detecting the faults of 
others. 

To deprecate the utility of secondary motives, is 
to betray an ignorance of human nature. 

Mankind are not formed to live without ceremony 
and form : The " inward, spiritual grace 57 is very apt 
to be lost without the " external, visible sign.' 7 
Many are continually setting up for the expulsion of 
ceremonies from this or that, and often, with advan- 

L 



146 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

tage, when they have so multiplied as to grow bur- 
densome ; but if ever they have carried this too far, 
they have been either forced to bring back some cere- 
monies, or have found the want of them. The same 
is found in the minor department of manners ; when 
form is too much neglected, true politeness suffers 
diminution ; then, we are obliged to bring some back 
and when these again grow burdensome, we lay them 
aside again ; so that there is a continual flux and 
reflux. Upon the whole, we may conclude that cere- 
mony and form of every kind derive their necessity 
from our imperfection. If we were perfectly spiritual, 
we might worship God without any form at all, with- 
out ever uttering words ; as we are not, it is a folly 
to say, " One may be just as pious on one day as 
another, in one place or posture as another, " &c, 
I answer, angels may ; man cannot. Again, if we 
were all perfectly benevolent, good-tempered, atten- 
tive to the gratifying of others, &c, we might dis- 
pense with all the forms of good-breeding ; as it is, 
we cannot ; we are not enough of heroes to fight 
without discipline. Selfishness will be sure to assail 
us if we once let the barriers be broken down. At 
the same time it is evident from what has been said, 
that the higher our nature is carried, the less form 
we need. 

But though we may deservedly congratulate so- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 147 

ciety on being able to dispense with this er that 
ceremony, do not let us be in a hurry to do so, till 
we are sure we can do without it. It is taking away 
crutches to cure the gout. The opposite extreme of 
substituting the external form for the thing signified, 
is not more dangerous or more common, than the 
neglect of that form. It is all very well to say, 
" There is no use in bidding good-morrow or good- 
night to those who know I wish it; of sending 
one's love, in a letter, to those w T ho do not doubt it," 
&c. All this is very well in theory, but it will not 
do for practice. Scarce any friendship, or any po- 
liteness, is so strong as to be able to subsist without 
any external supports of this kind ; and it is even 
better to have too much form than too little. 

Men are admired for what they are, commended 
for what they do, and macarized for what they have. 

He that assails error because it is error, without 
respect of persons, must be prepared for a storm 
from the party who were fanning him with the 
gentle breath of applause, so long as he had been 
dealing with the errors of the party opposed to them. 
They say with the rat, — 

" This cat, if she murder a rat, 
Must needs be a very great sinner, 

L 2 



148 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

But to dine upon mice, cant be counted a vice ; 
I myself like a mouse for my dinner."* 

Men often earnestly, but not very successfully, 
endeavour to put down that party which they have 
themselves fostered into strength and popularity. 
The little birds — according to the proverb — which 
are vainly chasing about the full-grown cuckoo, had 
themselves reared it as a nestling. And the horse 
in the fable, who, seeking aid against his enemy 
the stag, had allowed an insiduous ally to mount, 
and to put his bit into his mouth, found it afterwards 
no easy matter to unseat him. 

Xo appellation, however honourable in itself, and 
however fairly applicable, can be innocently assumed 
as the badge of a party. Those of the Corinthians, 
who said, " I am of Christ," using the title to dis- 
tinguish them from other members of the same Church, 
were no less censured than those who said, "I am 
of Paul," or "I jam of Apollos." 

Men become attached to a party in whose ranks 
they have fought. 

The stream of truth is gentle, but permanent; 

* Quoted from recollections of a ludicrous poem on a house much in- 
fested with rats, into which a cat had been introduced. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 149 

while passionate party-clamour is like a winter tor- 
rent, — impetuous, but transitory. 

Unhappily, a great portion of our species are not 
very wise, and a good many of them not very honest. 
The former, if they hear of a person who does not 
admit the grounds on which they believe something, 
take for granted that he does not believe it at all ; 
and the latter think it meritorious to take advantage 
of the silliness of the others, to garble and misre- 
present their opponent's expressions, in order to ex- 
pose him to odium, thus acting like those tyrannical 
emperors, who used to dress up their victims in the 
skins of wild beasts, and then set dogs at them to 
worry them to death. 

It is worth remarking that Party Spirit, in its 
violation of Shakespere's maxim, " Nothing extenu- 
ate, nor set down aught in malice," generally unites 
the two opposite extremes. For, it is the tendency 
of party- spirit to pardon anything in those who 
heartily support the party, and nothing in those who 
do not. 

Those who, from single sentences and passages 
apart from the context, represent an author as fa- 
vouring Socinian, Sabellian, or Arian views, should 



150 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

recollect that the same is notoriously the case with 
the Bible itself; since otherwise, those sects — each 
appealing to Scripture, which they interpret according 
to their own respective views — never could have arisen. 

To misrepresent the argument of an opponent, is 
virtually to admit that what he has really said, is 
not open to refutation. 

The principal cautions to be observed in the treat- 
ment and judgment of those who differ from us, 
whether on minor or essential points, are, first, to 
beware of mistaking the meaning of any one, and 
imputing to him sentiments which he does not really 
entertain ; secondly, to make due allowance for weak- , 
ness of intellect, backwardness in knowledge and 
inaptitude for accurate statements; and thirdly, to 
allow also for such differences of natural or acquired 
temper and taste, as imply nothing sinful; differences 
which even divine inspiration, as we may perceive 
from the characteristic style of composition of each 
of the sacred writers, does not entirely do away. 

The difference between self-love and selfishness 
has been well explained by Aristotle ; though he has 
not accounted for the use of the word (fiikavria. It 
is clear that selfishness exists only in reference to 



MISCELLANEOUS, 151 

others, and could have no place in one who lived 
alone on a desert island, though he might have of 
course every degree of self-love; for selfishness is 
not an excess of self-love, and consists not in an 
over -desire of happiness, but in placing your happi- 
ness in something which interferes with, or leaves 
you regardless of, that of others. 

It is a mistake to suppose, that selfishness and 
want of feeling are either the same, or inseparable. 
Now, on the one hand, I have known such as have 
had very little feeling, but felt for others as much 
nearly as for themselves; and were, therefore, far 
from selfish : and, on the other hand, some of very 
acute feelings, feel for no one but themselves, and 
indeed, are sometimes amongst the most cruel. 

Again, some are capable of making grand and 
generous sacrifices on great occasions, who yet in- 
dulge an habitually selfish temper in trifles. 

It is remarkable, that freedom from selfishness is 
not a virtue that is particularly well learned from 
example, but rather the contrary ; e. g., a parent 
who is never thinking of her own convenience, but 
always of her children's advantage, will be likely 
to let that too plainly appear, so as to fill the child 
with an idea that everything is to give way to him, 



152 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

and that his concerns are an ultimate end. Nay, 
the very pains taken with him in strictly controlling 
him, heighten his idea of his own vast importance 
whereas a parent who is selfish, will be sure to ac 
custom the child to sacrifice his own convenience 
and to understand that he is of much less import 
ance than the parent ; and so in some other cases 
Accordingly, selfishness is caught from those who 
have least of it. 

Aristotle had the eye of a bird, both telescopic 
and microscopic. 

One of the most exalted and least acquirable ta- 
lents is Totality ; not every one who has bricks, has 
a house. 

The more a man knows, the more he will feel of 
admiration, and the less of surprize. 

Though the word " Pedantry " is applied, almost 
exclusively, to the introduction in ordinary conversa- 
tion of learned technicalities ; yet the thing is found 
in all professions ; and chiefly in those which are 
not learned ; no one has it more than the sailor. 

The most ordinary and unimportant actions of a 



MISCELLANEOUS. 153 

man's life, will often shew more of his natural cha- 
racter and his habits than more important actions, 
which are done deliberately, and sometimes against 
his natural inclinations. And again ; what is said 
or done by very inferior persons, who seldom think 
for themselves, or act resolutely on their own judg- 
ment, is the best sign of what is commonly said or 
done in the place and time in which they live. A 
man of resolute character and of an original turn 
of thought, is less likely to be led by those around 
him, and, therefore, does not furnish so good a sign 
of what are the prevailing opinions and customs. 

Concealment is the great spur to curiosity, which 
gives an interest to investigation. The celebrated 
Letters of Junius would, probably, have long since 
been forgotten, if the author could have been clearly 
pointed out at the time. 

Men are never so ready to study the interior of a 
subject, as when there is something of a veil thrown 
over the exterior. 

Every precaution not to offend the pride of others 
has an obvious tendency to allay it. The less the 
wound is chafed, the more likely it is to heal. 



154 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

It is worth remarking, that many persons are of 
such a disposition as to be nearly incapable of re- 
maining in doubt on any point that is not wholly 
uninteresting to them. They speedily make up their 
minds on each question, and come to some conclu- 
sion, whether there are any good grounds for it or 
not. And judging — as men are apt to do, in all 
matters — of others, from themselves, they usually 
discredit the most solemn assurances of any one 
who professes to be in a state of doubt on some ques- 
tion ; taking for granted that if you do not adopt 
their opinion, you must be of the opposite. 

Others again there are, who are capable of re- 
maining in doubt as long as the reasons on each side- 
seem exactly balanced ; but not otherwise. Such a 
person, as soon as he perceives any — the smallest — 
preponderance of probability on one side of a ques- 
tion, can no more refrain from deciding immediately, 
and with full conviction, on that side, than he could 
continue to stand, after having lost his equilibrium, 
in a slanting position, like the famous tower at Pisa. 
And he will, accordingly, be disposed to consider 
an acknowledgment that there are somewhat the 
stronger reasons on one side, as equivalent to a con- 
fident decision. 

The tendency to such an error is the greater, from 



MISCELLANEOUS. 155 

the circumstance, that there are so many cases, in 
practice, wherein it is essentially necessary to come 
to a practical decision, even where there are no suffi- 
cient grounds for feeling fully convinced that it is the 
right one. A traveller may be in doubt, and may 
have no means of deciding, with just confidence, which 
of two roads he ought to take ; while yet he must, 
at a venture, take one of them. And the like hap- 
pens in numberless transactions of ordinary life, in 
which we are obliged practically to make up our 
minds at once to take one course or another, even 
where there are no sufficient grounds for a full con- 
viction of the understanding. 

The infirmities above mentioned are those of or- 
dinary minds. A smaller number of persons, among 
whom, however, are to be found a larger proportion 
of the intelligent, are prone to the opposite extreme ; 
that of not deciding, as long as there are reasons to 
be found on both sides, even though there may be 
a clear and strong preponderance on the one, and 
even though the case may be such as to call for a 
practical decision. As the one description of men 
rush hastily to a conclusion, and trouble themselves 
little about premises, so, the other carefully examine 
premises, and care too little for conclusions. The 
one decide without enquiring, the other inquire 
without deciding. 



156 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

A charge without proof, as a verdict without evi- 
dence, must always be unjust ; whether the accused 
be, in fact, innocent or guilty. 

The imperfect and confused sympathy we have 
with others, in respect of their feelings towards us, 
and indeed universally, may be likened to nothing 
so well as to the mixture of transparency and reflec- 
tion in plate-glass. We sympathize, as Adam Smith 
observes, with an idiot or a madman ; forming an 
indistinct idea of being in his situation, and at the 
same time retaining (which is a contradictory suppo- 
sition) our present views of his actions. Just as 
one looks through the window at a tree, and sees, 
by an imperfect reflection, his own face as if placed 
in the midst of the tree ; which if it were, he could 
not have that view of the tree. And even so, we 
cannot imagine people talking of us after our death, 
without the idea presenting itself of our hearing 
what they say. 

We never can be sure what would be our impres- 
sion derived from such and such a passage alone, 
and without any reference to our pre- conceived no- 
tions. It is one of the most difficult exercises of 
imagination to fancy yourself ignorant of what you 
really know, and a mere white sheet of paper in 



MISCELLANEOUS. 157 

reference to some subject on which you have actually 
formed opinions. A Jury is often exhorted by the 
Judge to give a verdict entirely from the evidence 
given in court, without any regard to what they 
may have heard or thought previously ; all which, 
they are to divest themselves of, and lay aside. But 
this is a precept easier to give than to observe : e. g., 
if you had never at once handled and looked at a 
globe and a cube, or a dog and a cat, you would 
not, on seeing them for the first time, know which 
was which. Bishop Berkeley undertook to prove 
this ; but it was thought a monstrous paradox till 
experiments proved that he was right. Words ex- 
pressing some tiling seem to us to imply what has 
been in our minds associated with that thing. 

Writers of great note have declaimed on the much 
stricter observance, in the Universe, of the laws of 
Nature, than, in mankind, of the divine and human 
laws, overlooking the yet obvious distinction, that, 
in the former case, it is the observance that consti- 
tutes the law, whereas in the other case, the law is 
not more or less a law from the conformity, or non- 
conformity, of individuals to it. 

Weak men, having been warned that u wisdom 
and wit' 7 are not the same thing, and that ridicule 



158 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

is not the test of Truth, distrust everything that 
can possibly be regarded as witty ; not having judg- 
ment to perceive the combination, when it occurs, of 
Wit with sound Reasoning. The ivy-wreath con- 
ceals from their view the point of the Thyrsus. He 
that can laugh at what is ludicrous, and at the same 
time, preserve a clear discernment of sound and un- 
sound reasoning, is no ordinary man. 

Many are sometimes scandalized when some folly 
that has been forced into connection with religion is 
laughed at as if religion itself were ridiculed. It 
is true, indeed, that to attack even error in religion 
with mere ridicule, is no wise act, because good 
things may be ridiculed as well as bad. But it 
surely cannot be our duty to abstain from shewing 
plainly that absurd things are absurd, merely be- 
cause people cannot help smiling at them. If so, 
the more directly absurd anything is, the more se- 
cure it is from refutation ; since it is impossible to 
refute such things, without placing them in a lu- 
dicrous point of view. A tree is not impaired by 
being cleared of mosses and lichens, nor Truth, by 
having folly or sophistry torn away from around it. 

The essence of a Jest is its mimic sophistry — a 
sophistry so palpable as not to be likely to deceive 



MISCELLANEOUS. 159 

any one, but yet bearing just that resemblance of 
argument which is calculated to amuse by the con- 
trast ; in the same manner that a parody does, by 
the contrast of its levity with the serious production 
which it imitates. There is, indeed, something laugh- 
able even in fallacies which are intended for serious 
conviction, when they are thoroughly exposed. 

There are several different kinds of joke and rail- 
lery which will be found to correspond with the dif- 
ferent kinds of fallacy. The Pun (to take the sim- 
plest and most obvious case) is evidently, in most 
instances, a mock argument founded on a palpable 
equivocation of the middle-term. It is probable, 
indeed, that all jests, sports, or games, properly so 
called, will be found, on examination, to be imitative 
of serious transactions, as of War or Commerce. 

That censure and commendation should, in many 
instances be indiscriminate, can surprize no one who 
recollects how rare a quality discrimination is ; and 
how much better it suits indolence, as well as igno- 
rance, to lay down a rule than to ascertain the ex- 
ceptions to it. 

How many act like Sinbad's monkeys, who pelted 
their enemies with cocoa-nuts ! 



160 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

He that is truly wise and great, 
Lives both too early and too late. 

A very eminent man comes too late for some pur- 
poses, and too early for others. 

True generosity seems to consist chiefly in stand- 
ing by, as it were, to contemplate all your own ac- 
tions in the character of an unconcerned and judicious 
spectator ; imperiously dictating to yourself, in spite 
of all individual feelings, that conduct which would 
appear to such a spectator the most beautiful. 



It is a curious circumstance, when persons 
forty before they were at all acquainted, form together 
a very close intimacy of friendship. For grafts of 
old wood to take, there must be a wonderful conge- 
niality between the trees. 

Two people, who are each of an unyielding temper, 
will not act well together ; and people who are all 
of them of a very yielding temper, will be likely to 
resolve on nothing ; just as stones without mortar 
make a loose wall, and mortar alone, no wall. So 
says the proverb — 

" Hard npon hard makes a bad stone wall, 
But soft upon soft makes none at all. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 161 

Increase of a thing is often confounded with our 
increased knowledge of it. When crimes or acci- 
dents are recorded in newspapers more than formerly, 
some people fancy that they happen more than for- 
merly. But crimes, especially (be it observed) such 
as are the most remote from the experience of each 
individual, and therefore strike him as something 
strange, always furnish interesting articles of intel- 
ligence. I have no doubt that a single murder in 
Great Britain has often furnished matter for discourse, 
to more than twenty times as many persons as any 
twenty such murders would in Turkey. 

Some foreign traveller in England is said to have 
remarked on the perceptible diminution in the number 
of crimes committed during the sitting of Parliament 
as a proof of our high reverence for that assembly ; 
the fact being, as we all know, that the space occupied 
in the newspapers by the Debates causes the records 
of many crimes to be omitted. 

This tendency to overrate the amount of whatever 
is known, seen, and definite, as compared with what 
is (either from the nature of the case, or accidentally) 
unknown or less known — unseen — indefinite, is a 
most important principle to keep in mind for the 
correction of a whole class of errors in popular judg- 
ment. — Under this head, comes the supposed su- 
periority of wisdom attributed to cautious, reserved, 

M 



162 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

non- confiding, do-nothing characters, as compared 
with the more open, unreserved, energetic and pari- 
hesiastic characters. Of course, every one will ad- 
mit that there may be an extreme either way. But 
take the average,* the moderate description, of each 
class, and you will find that a dozen of the more 
open and daring character, supposing an equality 
in other points in respect of ability, will have had, 
though they do commit a greater number of actual 
tangible errors and meet with a greater number of 
distinct failures, have had altogether full as much 
success, have got on as well, if not better, than a 
dozen of the other. 

Whence then the over-estimate of those who are 
called the "prudent?" Because their failures are, 
in general, indefinite, and are neither known nor 
distinctly existing. If I never go on horseback, I 
never incur the definite evil of being stopped in a 
journey by a fall from a horse, or by a runaway or 
restive horse : I may exult over the rider's accidents 
of this kind, but in the long run he will have ac- 
complished, in spite of all, more journeys than I 
could on foot. If I let my land be waste, I shall 
not have to reckon, this year and that year, a failure 
of crop, but my neighbour, with all his losses, will 
perhaps, make more of his farm. He who thinks 
it always best not to mention things, and thus trusts 



MISCELLANEOUS. 163 

no one, is never betrayed, but he loses all the ad- 
vantages of friendship. u There are other motes be- 
side those in the sun-beam." 

Men are liable to form an over-estimate of the 
purity of morals in the Country, as compared with 
a Town ; or in a barren and thinly-peopled, as com- 
pared with a fertile and populous district. On a 
given area, it must always be expected, that the 
absolute amount of vice will be greater in a Town 
than in the Country ; so also will be that of virtue : 
but the proportion of the two must be computed on 
quite different principles. A physician of great 
skill and in high repute, probably loses many more 
patients than an ordinary practitioner: but this 
proves nothing, till we have ascertained the com- 
parative numbers of their patients. Mistakes such 
as this (which are very frequent) remind one of the 
well-known riddle, " What is the reason that white 
sheep eat more than black ones?" 

There is no good reason for calling the condition 
of the rudest savages "a state of nature/ 7 unless 
the phrase be used (as perhaps in strictness it ought) 
to denote merely ignorance of Arts. A plant would 
not be said to be in its natural state, which was 
growing in a soil or climate that precluded it from 

m2 



164 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

putting forth the flowers and the fruit for which its 
organization was destined. In like manner, the na^ 
tural state of man must, according to all fair analogy, 
be reckoned, not that in which his intellectual and 
moral growth are, as it were, stunted, and perma- 
nently repressed, but one in which his original en- 
dowments are, not indeed brought to perfection, but 
enabled to exercise themselves and to expand, like 
the flowers of a plant ; and, especially, in which that 
characteristic of our species, the tendency towards 
progressive improvement, is permitted to come into 
play. 

Melancholy as it is to see, as we may, for instance, 
in our own country, multitudes of Beings of such 
high qualifications and such high destination as Man, 
absorbed in the pursuit of merely temporal objects — 
occupied in schemes for obtaining wealth and worldly 
aggrandizement, without any higher views in pur- 
suing them,- — we must keep in mind that such a 
devotedness to temporal objects is no characteristic 
of a more wealthy and civilized, as distinguished 
from a more barbarian, state of society ; and that 
the savage is not above such a life, but below it. It 
is not from preferring virtue to wealth — the goods 
of the mind to those of fortune — the next world to 
the present — that he takes so little thought for the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 165 

morrow ; but, from want of forethought and of ha- 
bitual self-command. The civilized man, too often, 
directs those qualities to an unworthy object ; the 
savage, universally, is deficient in the qualities them- 
selves. The one is a stream flowing, too often, in 
a wrong channel, and which needs to have its course 
altered ; the other is a stagnant pool. 

The declaimers upon the incompatibility or dis- 
cordancy of natural Wealth and Virtue, are, by 
their own shewing, mere declaimers, and nothing 
more: Seneca's discourses in praise of poverty 
would, I have no doubt, be rivalled by many writers 
of this island, if one-half of the revenues he drew 
from the then inhabitants of it, by lending them 
money at high interest, were proposed as a prize. 
Such declaimers against wealth resemble the Har- 
pies of Virgil, seeking to excite disgust at the 
banquet of which they are themselves eager to 
partake. 

The goods of this world are by no means a trifling 
concern to Christians, considered as Christians. They 
are, in themselves, goods ; and it is our part, instead 
of affecting ungratefully to slight or to complain of 
God's gifts, to endeavour to make them goods to us, 
by studying to use them aright. Whether indeed 



166 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

we ourselves shall have enjoyed a large or a small 
share of them, will be of no importance to us a 
hundred years hence ; but it will be of the greatest 
importance, whether we shall have employed the 
faculties and opportunities granted to us, in the in- 
crease and diffusion of those bounties of Providence 
among others. 

Of the two evils connected with a high degree 
of division of labour, which may prove unfavourable 
to national morality — the evil of reducing each man 
too much to the condition of a mere machine, or ra- 
ther one part of a machine, by the too great con- 
centration of the attention on the performance of a 
single, and sometimes very simple, operation, re- 
sulting in the contraction of the faculties and conse- 
quent debasement of mind — and the danger of being 
thrown out of work — the appropriate remedies are, 
I think, to be found in judicious education and habits 
of provident frugality. And in another expedient, 
which provident good sense would suggest, as a safe- 
guard against the last danger, that the several mem- 
bers of a family should betake themselves, as far as 
that is possible, to different occupations. That ad- 
vanced state of society, which is the most exposed 
to the evils, is also the most favourable to the appli- 
cation of the remedies. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 167 

Among the classes of persons to whom emigration 
seems peculiarly appropriate, may be mentioned that 
description of workmen, not so frequent in this 
country now as formerly : viz., a Jack- of- all-trades : 
the perfection to which the subdivision of labour has 
been brought, having caused them to fall into dis- 
repute. As Plato remarks of a certain class of phi- 
losophers (who, notwithstanding the lofty appella- 
tion bestowed on them, were neither more nor less 
than artists of this description), no one chooses to 
employ the one man who can do many things toler- 
ably, when he can have access to several who can 
do each of them excellently ; and hence, though in 
general, men of superior ingenuity, their poverty is 
become proverbial. They have, accordingly, the more 
reason to try their fortune in a young settlement, 
which is exactly their proper field. A scattered 
population, bad roads, remoteness from towns, and 
a novel situation, leave in a most helpless condition 
the man who has concentrated all his powers in 
learning to perform some one operation very skil- 
fully, and who has no resources. A new country, 
and a young settlement, is the best place, likewise, 
for many who may have been goaded by the pressure 
of distress, combined with the inflammatory decla- 
mations of designing men, to feel impatient of the 
burden of taxes and poor-rates Thus irritation will 



168 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

have time and opportunity to subside, in a country 
where there are no tumultuous meetings, in populous 
towns, of unemployed manufacturers ; but where all 
their neighbours, as well as themselves, have some- 
thing better to do, than to set about new modelling 
the constitution, — where the chief reform called for 
is to convert forests into corn-fields, in which no one 
will hinder them from laying the axe to the root of 
the evil, — and in which the desire of novelty may 
be fully gratified, without destroying established in- 
stitutions, — where, in short, the whole structure of 
society is to be built up, without being previously 
pulled down. 

Every settler in a foreign colony is, necessarily, 
more or less, a missionary to the aborigines — a 
missionary for good, or a missionary for evil — oper- 
ating upon them by his life and example. 

It is often said that our Colonies ought to provide 
for their own spiritual wants. But the more that is 
done for them in this way, the more likely they w T ill 
be to make such provision ; and the more they are 
neglected, the less likely they are to do it. It is 
the peculiar nature of the inestimable treasure of 
Christian Truth and Religious Knowledge, that the 
more it is withheld from people, the less they wish 



MISCELLANEOUS. 169 

for it ; and the more bestowed upon them, the more 
they hunger and thirst after it. If people are kept 
upon a short allowance of food, they are eager to 
obtain it ; if you keep a man thirsty, he will become 
the more and more thirsty ; if he is poor, he is ex- 
ceedingly anxious to become rich ; but if he is left 
in a state of spiritual destitution, after a time he 
will, and still more his children, cease to feel it, 
and cease to care about it. It is the last want men 
can be trusted, in the first instance, to supply for 
themselves. 

The direct effects of religion on national character, 
few will be disposed to deny, even of those who be- 
lieve in no religion, since of several different forms 
of superstitious error, supposing all religions to be 
such, one may at least be more compatible with 
moral improvement than another. 

Not, however, that religion has not an indirect 
effect also, through its influence on national pros- 
perity. To take one point out of many, War, which, 
if Christianity were heartily and generally embraced, 
would be wholly unknown, has been, even as it is, 
much mitigated by that humanizing influence. Now 
"War is, in the present day, generally regarded, 
though to a far less degree than it really is, as a 
great destroyer of wealth. But the direct demoral- 



170 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

izing effect of War is probably still greater than its 
impoverishing effect. The same may be said of 
Slavery, in its various forms, including the serf- 
ship of the Kussians and the Hungarians. If both 
Slavery and War were at an end, the wealth of na- 
tions would increase, but their civilization in the 
most important parts would increase in a still greater 
ratio. 

It is characteristic of the puerile and the semi- 
barbarian condition of mind to be disposed to violate 
the wise maxim of "pas trop gouverner." 

In Legislative Punishment, the point that should 
rank first of, and above, all other considerations, 
is that it should be formidable, i. e., that the appre- 
hension of it should operate, as much as possible, 
to deter men from crime, and thus to prevent the 
necessity of its actual infliction ; — secondly, that it 
should be humane ; i.e., that it should occasion as 
little as possible of useless suffering — of pain or in- 
convenience, that does not conduce to the point pro- 
posed ; — thirdly, that it should be corrective, or at 
least not corrupting; tending to produce in the 
criminal himself, if his life be spared, and in others, 
either a moral improvement, or, at least, as little as 
possible of moral debasement; — and lastly, that it 



MISCELLANEOUS. 171 

should be cheap. . . . This last point is of far less 
consequence than the others. - 

The preventive effects of any system, whether for 
good or evil, are hardly ever duly appreciated. We 
see the crimes that are actually committed, and we 
see the men who are hanged for them ; we do not 
see the crimes that would be committed if there were 
no hanging. 

The occasions for the exercise of a certain power 
may be very few, and yet the existence of the power 
not the less important ; because when such an occa- 
sion does arise, (and it is the more likely to arise if 
there be no provision to meet the emergency,) the 
consequence of not being prepared for it may be 
most disastrous. If any one should be so wearied 
with the monotonous " All's well" of the nightly 
guardians of a Camp, hour after hour, and night 
after night, as to conclude that their service was 
superfluous, and, accordingly, to dismiss them, how 
much real danger, and how much unnecessary appre- 
hension, would be the result. 

An evil is not necessarily unreal, because it has 
been often feared without just cause ; the wolf does 



172 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

sometimes enter in, and make havoc of the flock, 
although there have been many false alarms. 

As custom will often blind men to the good, as 
well as to the evil effects, of any long established 
system, we should never alter for the mere sake of 
altering. 

As it would not tend much to the improvement 
of the regular public high-roads, or to amend the. 
direction of them, should each man be ready to 
break a pathway for himself, as his own convenience 
may suggest ; so nothing tends more to prevent the 
regular abrogation, or alteration, of unwise laws r 
than the irregular infringement or evasion of them. 

The truest friend to liberty, is the supporter of 
regular and moderate government ; and the firmest 
bulwark of royal authority, is the judicious advo- 
cate of the subject's rights. 

Oppression is a false step, which it is peculiarly 
difficult to retrace. As its brutalizing effects cannot 
immediately be done away by its removal, they at 
once furnish a pretext for justifying it, and make 
relief hazardous. Kind and liberal treatment, if 



MISCELLANEOUS. 173 

very cautiously and judiciously bestowed, will, gra- 
dually and slowly, advance men towards the condi- 
tion of being worthy of such treatment : but treat 
men as aliens or enemies, — as slaves, as children, 
or as brutes, and they will speedily and completely 
justify your conduct. 

The sense of wrong and insult is often felt more 
than injury. It is unpleasant in going through a 
wood, to have the wet boughs bang against one's 
face ; but who feels this, as he should a man's spit- 
ting in his face, and slapping him at pleasure. This 
should be remembered, when comparisons are insti- 
tuted between the condition of the most hard- 
worked labourer in Europe, and that of a Slave. 

Some Systems are defended — and Negro Slavery 
amongst the rest — by saying, that the evils are 
merely incidental, and form no part of the design. 
If this means merely, that no system should be at 
once condemned, solely because some incidental evils 
are connected with it, as some must be with every 
system, in this we heartily concur. Navigation is 
a good thing, although ships are occasionally 
wrecked, and men drowned. But to put out of ac- 
count, altogether, the greater or less liability to 
abuses, and the greater or less enormity of them, 



174 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

and quietly to ignore every incidental evil, would 
be, in the ordinary concerns of life, regarded as a 
proof of insanity. Who, for instance, would leave 
children at play in a room full of loaded fire-arms, 
and edge-tools, and open casks of gunpowder ? Yet 
the tools were not designed to cut them, or the guns 
to shoot them. If they maim, kill, or blow up one 
another, these are only abuses. The best mode we 
can think of, for disabusing one who holds such an 
opinion, is, that he should take up his abode next 
door to a soap-boiler, with a brazier on the other 
side of his house, a slaughter-house over the way, 
and a store of gunpowder in the vaults beneath him ; 
being admonished at the same time, to remember 
that if his eyes, nose, and ears, are incessantly an- 
noyed, and he is ultimately blown up, these are 
only incidental evils. 

Some, even Englishmen, who have visited Slave 
States, are satisfied at being told that the Slaves 
are far better off, and more civilized there, than in 
their own barbarian countries, which is, probably, 
for the most part true. But, why have the African 
countries continued so long in gross barbarism? 
They have long had intercourse with Europeans, 
who might have taught them to raise Sugar and 
Cotton, &c, at home for the European markets, and 



MISCELLANEOUS . 175 

in other ways might have civilized them. And it 
cannot be said that they are incapable of learning, 
since free Negroes in various countries, though they 
have the disadvantage of being a degraded caste, 
are yet (however inferior to us), far advanced be- 
yond the savage tribes of Africa. But it is the very 
Slave-trade itself that has kept them barbarians, by 
encouraging wars for the purpose of taking captives 
to be sold as slaves, and the villainous practices of 
kidnapping, and trading in each other's happiness 
and liberties. It is the very system itself which 
men seek to excuse, by pointing out the comfortable 
state of Slaves when they are caught and sold, that, 
to a great extent, produces, and must, if persisted in, 
perpetuate, the barbarous condition with which this 
comparative comfort is contrasted. The whole of 
these African tribes might, under a better system, 
have enjoyed, in freedom, far, very far, greater 
comfort in their native land, than that which some 
of them now possess, as slaves, in a foreign land. 

* 
The advocates of Slavery, as it still exists in the 
"Western Hemisphere, are accustomed to appeal to 
the non-prohibition of it in the express commands 
of Scripture, forgetting, that whatever sanction this 
implies, is equally given to the despotism of the 
Roman Emperors. 



176 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

In the Slave States, among those who defend and 
justify Slavery, no Dealer in Slaves is ever admitted 
into good society. He is regarded in much the same 
light as a smuggler is, by those who do not scruple 
to buy his goods. In all these cases, men uncon- 
sciously pronounce their own doom. 

Though it may not depend on each of us, whether 
this, or that, evil shall take place; it does depend 
on us, whether we shall have any share in it. 

It is curious to observe the odd limitations of 
power, in those who seem despotic, and yet cannot 
do what seem little things : e. g., when the Romans 
took possession of Egypt, the people submitted, 
without the least resistance, to have their lives and 
property at the mercy of a foreign nation. But one 
of the Roman soldiers happening to kill a cat in the 
streets of Alexandria, they rose on him and tore 
him from limb to limb ; and the excitement was so 
violent that the generals overlooked the outrage for 
fear of insurrection ! — Claudius Csesar tried to in- 
troduce a letter which was wanting in the Roman 
Alphabet ; the consonant V as distinct from U, they 
having but one character for both. He ordained 
that ^ (an F reversed) should be that character. 
It appears on some inscriptions in his time ; but he 



MISCELLANEOUS, 17 7 

could not establish, it ; though he could kill or plunder 
his subjects at pleasure ! So can the Emperor of 
Russia : but he cannot change the style. It would 
displace the days of saints whom his people worship, 
and it would produce a formidable insurrection ! 
Other instances of this strange kind of anomaly 
might doubtless be produced. 

It is supposed by most people, that Trial by 
Jury, as it now exists, is one of our most ancient 
institutions. But there is good reason to believe, 
that, originally, causes were decided, not by the Jury, 
but intirely by the Judge. In order to aid him in 
the Trial, twelve men of respectable character were 
taken from the neighbourhood where the witnesses 
lived, as being likely to know something of them, 
and to be able to form a judgment how far each of 
them was to be trusted. And after these witnesses 
had been examined in their presence, they gave their 
opinion on the whole of the evidence, and the Judge, 
decided. By degrees, however, the opinion [or 
verdict] of the Jury came to be regarded as decisive ; 
and the Judge merely " pronounced judgment," (as 
is done now) according to the Verdict. 

So little do Historians dwell on those ordinary 
transactions of human life, which furnish the data 

N 



178 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

from which the social progress of nations may be 
estimated, that this kind of information is introduced, 
for the most part, only incidentally and obliquely ; 
and is to be collected, imperfectly, from scattered 
allusions. So that if you will give a rapid glance, 
for instance, at the history of these islands from the 
time of the Norman conquest to the present day, 
not only do we find little mention of the causes of 
social progress, but what we chiefly do read of is, the 
counteracting causes ; viz., wars, revolutions, and 
disturbances of every kind. Now, if a ship had per- 
formed a voyage of 800 leagues, and the register of 
it contained an account chiefly of the contrary winds 
and currents, and made little mention of favourable 
gales, we might well be at a loss to understand how 
she reached her destination, and might even be led 
into the mistake of supposing that the contrary winds 
had forwarded her in her course. Yet such is His- 
tory. — It may be said to be the record of the impedi- 
ments to social progress. 

It has often occurred to me, that the Longevity of 
the Antediluvians may have been a special provision 
to meet the difficulty in the way of social progress, 
which in those early ages must have existed before 
the invention, and the familiar use, of writing had 
enabled each generation to record, for the use of the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 179 

next, not only its discoveries, but its observations, and 
incomplete experiments. For the more you specu- 
late on the probable origin of the various arts, which 
are the most universal among mankind, the more 
you will be struck with this consideration that many 
of the commonest arts, and which appear the simplest, 
and require but a very humble degree of intelligence 
for their exercise, are yet such, that we must suppose 
various accidents to have occurred, and to have been 
noted — many observations to have been made, and 
combined — and many experiments to have been 
made, in order to their being originally invented. 
Even now that writing is in use, a single individual, 
if he live long enough to follow up a train of experi- 
ments, has a great advantage, in respect of dis- 
coveries, over a succession of individuals ; because 
he will recollect, when the occasion arises, many of 
his former observations, and of the ideas that had 
occurred to his mind, which, at the time, he had not 
thought worth recording. But previous to the use of 
writing, the advantage of being able to combine, in 
one's own person, the experience of several centuries, 
must have been of immense importance ; and it was 
an advantage which the circumstances of the case 
seemed to require. 

The absence of written records is, though a very 

n2 



180 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

important, rather a secondary, than a primary, ob- 
stacle, to any forward movement in a Community. 
It is one branch of that general characteristic of the 
Savage, — improvidence. If you suppose the case of 
a savage taught to read and write, but allowed to 
remain in all other respects, the same careless, 
thoughtless kind of Being, and afterwards left to 
himself, he would most likely forget his acquisition, 
and would certainly, by neglecting to teach it to his 
children, suffer it to be lost in the next generation. 
On the other hand, — if you conceive such a case — 
(which certainly is conceivable, and I am disposed 
to think it a real one :) as that of a people ignorant 
of this art; but acquiring in some degree a thoughtful 
and provident character, I have little doubt, that 
their desire, thence arising, to record permanently 
their Laws, practical maxims, and discoveries, would 
gradually lead them, first, to the use of memorial- 
verses ; and afterwards, to some kind of natural 
symbols, such as picture writing, and the hiero- 
glyphics ; which might gradually be still further 
improved into writing, properly so called. 

We have no direct information as to the immediate 
cause of the great longevity of the earliest genera- 
tions of men. But it seems likely it may have been 
produced by the influence of u the Tree of Life ;" 



MISCELLANEOUS. 181 

a vestige of an early tradition respecting which 
appears in Homer, representing his gods as support- 
ing perpetual life and vigour by drinking nectar, and 
eating Ambrozia (that is, immortality.) 

That the produce of this tree, (whether its fruits 
or its leaves) was endued by the Creator with some 
property of warding off death, we are plainly taught, 
both by its name, and by the exclusion of Adam 
from the Garden of Eden, " lest he should eat of the 
tree of life, and live for ever/' 

It is likely that it had the medicinal virtue, when 
applied from time to time, of preventing, or curing, 
the decay of old age ; just as our ordinary food pre- 
serves men from dying of exhaustion by famine ; 
and as several well-known medicines prevent, or cure, 
certain diseases. We know indeed, that there does 
not exist now any medicine that has the virtue of 
keeping up, or renewing, youthful health or vigour. 
But such a medicine would not be, in itself, at all 
more strange than many things which we are familiar 
with, but whose effects we cannot explain, and could 
never have conjectured. 

For example, that opium and some other drugs 
should produce sleep, and strong liquors, a kind of 
temporary madness, is what no one would ever have 
thought of, if he had never heard of it, nor seen 
the experiment tried of swallowing those substances. 



182 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

Nor, even if he were a skilful chemist, would he be 
able, by analysing them, to conjecture what their 
effects would be. If then the Tree of Life were such 
a medicine as we have supposed, a person who always 
continued the use of it, from time to time, would 
continue exempt from decay and death. 

But supposing some persons, who had been in the 
habit of using it (as our first parents doubtless had, 
since there was nothing to prevent them) should 
afterwards cease to use it, their constitution would, 
probably, have been so far fortified, that though 
they would at length die, yet they would live much 
longer than man's natural term. And they would 
even be likely to transmit to their descendants such 
a constitution, as would confer on those, also, a great 
degree of longevity, which would only wear out 
gradually, in many successive generations. 

Now it is remarkable, that this exactly agrees 
with what we do find recorded. If we look into those 
parts of the Bible history, which relate to this sub- 
ject, we shall find man's life, in the earliest genera- 
tions, extending to eight or nine centuries, and 
upwards. And we shall find longevity gradually 
diminishing in each generation, down to the times of 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who lived rather less 
than two hundred years ; and again, down to the 
time of Moses, who began his mission apparently in 



MISCELLANEOUS. 183 

the full vigour of life at four score, and lived to one 
hundred and twenty, Joshua, who succeeded him, 
lived one hundred and ten years. And from thence 
forward, human life appears to have been brought 
down to about its present limit. 

The above seems to be the most clear, easy, and 
natural interpretation of those parts of Scripture we 
have been examining. There is not, however, any 
such distinct revelation on the subject as to authorise 
our pronouncing confidently that such must be the 
right interpretation, and making this an article of 
faith. 

The subject of Animal Instinct seems to form a 
point of contact between Natural History and the 
Philosophy of the Human Mind. And yet, bene- 
ficial and interesting as this circumstance alone might 
make this particular branch of study, a treatise upon 
Instinct is still a desideratum ; something like a 
philosophic or systematic view of the subject — a 
distinct and satisfactory answer to the question ; 
u What do you mean by Instinct ?" — is still wanting. 
It seems, that however far advanced we may be in a 
Dictionary on the subject of Instinct, a Grammar 
is a thing very much wanted. 

To say, as many are accustomed to do, that Brutes 



184 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS, 

are actuated solely by Instinct, and Man by Reason, 
is contrary to the implied rule, that a Being is acting 
instinctively when impelled blindly towards some 
end which the Agent does not aim at or perceive ; 
and on the other hand, that it is acting rationally, 
when acting with a view to, and for the sake of, some 
end which it does perceive. For, as some things 
felt and done by Man are allowed to be purely in- 
stinctive — as hunger and thirst for instance; are 
evidently instincts — so many things done by brutes, 
at least by the higher description of brutes, would 
be, if done by man, regarded as resulting from the 
exercise of Reason. 

In many instances we know this is not the case. 
A man builds a house from Reason — a bird builds a 
nest from Instinct ; and no one w r ould say that the 
bird, in this acted from Reason. But in other in- 
stances, Man not only does the same things as the 
brutes, but does them from the same kind of impulse, 
which should be called instinctive, whether in man 
or brute. And again, several things are done by 
brutes, which are evidently not instinctive, but, to 
all appearance no less rational than human acts : 
being not only the same actions, but done from the 
same impulse. The domestic animals exhibit many 
instances of this. There is an incident upon record, 
and there seems no ground for doubting it, of a dog, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 185 

which being left on the bank of a river by his master 
who had gone up the river in a boat, attempted to 
join him. He plunged into the water, but not making 
allowance for the strength of the stream, which car- 
ried him considerably below the boat, he could not 
beat up against it. He landed, and made allowance 
for the current of the river, by leaping in at a place 
higher up. The combined action of the stream and his 
swimming, carried him in an oblique direction, and 
he thus reached the boat. I do not vouch for the 
accuracy of this anecdote ; but I see no grounds for 
disbelieving it, as it is of a piece with many other 
recorded instances. 

There is another instance of this nature, which did 
come under my own observation, in which the actor 
was a cat — a species of animal generally considered 
very inferior in sagacity to a dog. This cat was 
known, not merely once or twice, but habitually, to 
ring the parlour-bell whenever it wished the door to 
be opened. Some alarm was excited on the first 
occasion that it turned bell-ringer. The family had 
retired to rest, and in the middle of the night the 
parlour bell was rung violently : the sleepers were 
startled from their repose, and proceeded down stairs, 
with pokers and tongs, to intercept as they thought, 
the predatory movements of some burglar ; but they 
were agreeably surprised to discover that the bell 



186 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

had been rung by Pussy, who frequently repeated 
the act whenever she wanted to get out of the 
parlour. 

Here are two clear cases of acts done by a cat and 
dog, which, if done by a man, would be called reason. 
Every one would admit that the actions were rational 
— not, to be sure, proceeding from a very high ex- 
ertion of intellect : but the dog, at least, rationally 
jumped into the stream at a distance higher up from 
the boat into which he wished to get, because, having 
made the trial, and failed, he apparently judged from 
the failure of the first attempt, that his course was to 
go up the stream, make allowance for its strength, 
and thus gain the boat ; he found that it would then 
carry him to it instead of from it ; and the cat 
pulled the parlour-bell, because she had observed, 
that when it was rung by the family, the servant 
opened the door. 

It appears, then, that we can neither deny Reason 
universally and altogether to brutes, nor Instinct to 
Man; but that each possesses a share of both, 
though in very different proportions. And yet the 
difference between man and brute, in respect of 
intelligence, appears plainly to be not a difference in 
mere degree but in hind. An intelligent brute is 
not like a stupid man. The intelligence and sa- 
gacity shown by the elephant, monkey, and dog, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 187 

are something very different from the lowest and 
most stupid of human beings. 

In fact, in the most striking instances in which 
brutes display reason, all the intellectual operation 
seems to consist in the combination of means to an 
end. The dog , who swam from a higher part of the 
river to reach the boat ; the cat who rang the bell to 
call the servant ; these, and many other similar in- 
stances of sagacity appear to consist but in this. 

But the great difference between Man and the 
higher brutes appears to me to consist in the power 
of using SIGNS — arbitrary signs — and employing 
. language as an instrument of thought. We are 
accustomed to speak of language as useful to man, to 
communicate his thoughts. I consider this as only 
one of the uses of language. That use of language 
which, though commonly overlooked, is the most 
characteristic of Man, is as an instrument of thought. 
Man is not the only animal that can make use of 
language to express what is passing within his mind, 
and that can understand, more or less, what is so 
expressed by another. Some brutes can be taught 
to utter, and many others, to understand, more or 
less imperfectly, sounds expressive of certain emo- 
tions. Every one knows that the dog understands 
the general drift of expressions used; and parrots 
can be taught not only to pronounce words, but to 



188 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

pronounce them with some consciousness of the 
general meaning of what they utter. They call for 
food ; when displeased, scold ; and use expressions in 
reference to particular persons which they have 
heard applied to them. Almost every animal which 
is capable of being tamed, can, in some degree, use 
language as an indication of what passes within. 
But no animal has the use of language as an " in- 
strument of thought." Man makes use of general 
signs in the application of his power of Abstraction, 
by which he is enabled to reason ; and the use of 
arbitrary general signs, what logicians call " common 
terms" with a facility of thus using Abstraction at 
pleasure, is a characteristic of Man. 

The implanting and modification of Instinct in 
animals, in consequence of the education received by 
many generations of their predecessors, is a point 
well worthy of inquiry. The most widely diffused 
of all implanted and modified Instincts is that of 
Wildness or Tameness. Whether the original 
Instinct of brutes was to be afraid of man, or familiar 
with him, I will not undertake to say. My own 
belief is, that it is the fear of man that is the im- 
planted instinct. But at any rate, it is plain that 
either the one or the other — wildness or tameness — 
must be an implanted, and not an original, Instinct. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 189 

All voyagers agree, that when they have gone into 
a country, which had not apparently been visited by 
man, neither bird nor beast exhibited fear. ,The 
birds perched familiarly upon their guns, or stood 
still to be knocked on the head. After the country 
had been for some time frequented, not only indi- 
vidual animals become afraid of man, but their off- 
spring inherit that fear by Instinct. 

There are many cases in which it cannot be ascer- 
tained towards what the immediate impulses of ani- 
mals tend. "We do not know through the medium 
of what organs birds are induced to put food into the 
mouths of their young. We see a pair of birds 
searching all day long for food; and, in many in- 
stances, the food they seek is such as they do not 
feed on themselves — for example, granivorous birds 
hunt after caterpillars for their young : in other cases 
they seek for food which their own appetite incites 
them to eat ; but they treasure it for their young, and 
are impelled by an instinctive appetite to put it into 
its mouth when opened. And this instinct is not 
peculiar to birds. The mammalia partake of it ; for 
we find wolves, dogs, and other carnivorous animals 
bringing home meat, and leaving it before their 
young ones. If a bitch or wolf has pups, and cannot 
bring food to them otherwise than by first swallow- 
ing it, she swallows it, and then disgorges it ; for the 



190 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS- 

animal has the power of evacuating its stomach at 
pleasure. Pigeons invariably swallow their food be- 
fore they give it to their young. — Take the case of 
migratory birds — even those which have been caged : 
when a particular season arrives, they desire to fly 
in a certain direction ; but what leads them in that 
direction cannot be understood. That direction is 
pointed out to them by God ; but how pointed out is 
only known to Him. And how delightful to a pious 
mind is it to contemplate every proof of the wisdom, 
goodness, and power of God — to mark everywhere 
the work of that same Creator's hand who has filled 
the universe with the monuments of His wisdom !* 

There is a remarkable phenomenon connected with 
insect life which has often occurred to my mind 
while meditating on the subject of preparedness for 
a future state, as presenting a curious analogy. 

Most persons know that every butterfly (the Greek 
name for which, it is remarkable, is the same that 
signifies also the Soul, — Psyche] comes from a grub 
or caterpillar ; in the language of naturalists called a 
larva. The last name (which signifies literally a 
mask) was introduced by Linnaeus, because the cater- 
pillar is a kind of outward covering, or disguise, of 

* For proceedings of rational agents analogous to Instinct, see pages 
18, 19. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 191 

the future butterfly within. For, it has been ascer- 
tained by curious microscopic examination, that a 
distinct butterfly, only undeveloped and not full- 
grown, is contained within the body of the cater- 
pillar ; that this latter has its own organs of diges- 
tion, respiration, &c, suitable to its larva-life, quite 
distinct from, and independent of, the future butterfly 
which it encloses. When the proper period arrives, 
and the life of the insect, in this its first stage, is to 
close, it becomes what is called a Pupa, enclosed in 
a Chrysalis or Cocoon (often composed of silk ; as is 
that of the silkworm which supplies us that impor- 
tant article), and lies torpid for a time within this 
natural coffin, from which it issues, at the proper 
period, as a perfect butterfly. 

But sometimes this process is marred. There is 
a numerous tribe of insects well known to naturalists, 
called Ichneumon-flies ; which in their larva- state 
are parasitical ; that is, inhabit, and feed on, other 
larva. The Ichneumon-fly, being provided with a 
long sharp sting, which is in fact an ovipositor (egg- 
layer), pierces with this the body of a caterpillar in 
several places, and deposits her eggs which are there 
hatched, and feed, as grubs (larvae) on the inward 
parts of their victim. — A most wonderful circum- 
stance connected with this process is, that a cater- 
pillar which has been thus attacked goes on feeding 



192 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

and apparently thriving quite as well during the 
whole of its larva-life, as those that have escaped. 
For, by a wonderful provision of instinct, the ichneu- 
mon-grubs within do not injure any of the organs of 
the larva, but feed only on the future butterfly en- 
closed within it. And consequently, it is hardly 
possible to distinguish a caterpillar which has these 
enemies within it from those that are untouched. — 
But when the period arrives for the close of the 
larva-life, the difference appears. You may often 
observe the common cabbage -caterpillars retiring, to 
undergo their change, into some sheltered spot — such 
as the walls of a summer-house ; and some of them 
— those that have escaped the parasites — assuming 
the pupa- state, from which they emerge butterflies. 
Of the unfortunate caterpillar that has been preyed 
upon, nothing remains but an empty skin. The 
hidden butterfly has been secretly consumed. Now 
is there not something analogous to this wonderful 
phenomenon in the condition of some of our race : — 
may not a man have a kind of secret enemy within 
his own bosom, destroying his Soul, — Psyche, — 
though without interfering with his well-being dur- 
ing the present stage of his existence; and whose 
presence may never be detected till the time arrives 
when the last great change should take place? — 
Every man should reflect whether this may not be 



MISCELLANEOUS. 193 

his case ; remembering that it is in his power now, 
through the help that is promised, to detect and de- 
stroy these secret but deadly enemies within him ! 

The great difficulty is, not to make men believe in 
a future state of rewards and punishments, but to 
make them seriously and earnestly think about it : 
and this will be the hardest task in the case of those 
whose serious thoughts are taken up with worldly 
pursuits. There is more hope of converting a sen- 
sualist than an avaricious, or ambitious, calculating, 
worldly man. Accordingly, during the ministry of 
our Lord such men rejected Him whilst the publi- 
cans and sinners heard Him gladly. The voluptuary 
does very often heartily despise the whole world, and 
everything in it, his own pursuits included. One 
reason, indeed, for this may be, that he has tried the 
value of his own objects : whereas, those who are 
pursuing distant objects, are always likely to over- 
rate them, from the dazzling colours in which hope 
decks them out. 

Many a man, who may admit it to be impossible 
to serve God and Mammon, at one and the same 
time, yet wishes to serve Mammon and God ; first 
the one, as long as he is able ; and then, the other. 

o 



194 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

There occurs in a late number of a leading Perio- 
dical a remark, which one may find also in the mouths 
of many, and in the minds of very many more ; that 
the great diversity of religious opinions prevailing in 
the world, and the absence of all superhuman provi- 
sion against them, is a proof that it is the will of the 
Almighty that such should be the case ; — that men 
were designed to hold all diversities of religious be- 
lief. Now, the inference which will naturally be 
drawn, on further reflection, from this is, that it is 
no matter whether we hold truth or falsehood ; and 
next, that there is no truth at all in any religion. 

But this is not all. The same reasoning would go 
to prove that since there is no infallible and univer- 
sally-accessible guide in morals, and men greatly 
differ in their judgments of what is morally right 
and wrong, hence we are to infer that God did not 
design men to agree on this point neither, and that 
it matters not whether we act on right or wrong 
principles ; and, in short, that there is no such thing 
as right and wrong ; but only what each man thinks. 
The two opposite errors (as we think them) from the 
same source, are, " If God wills all men to believe, 
and to act rightly, He must have given us an infal- 
lible and accessible guide for belief and practice. 
(1.) But He does so will; therefore, there is such a 
guide: and (2.) He has not given us any such 



MISCELLANEOUS. 195 

guide : therefore, He does not will all men to believe 
and act rightly." 

Now this is to confound the two senses of WILL, 
as distinguished in the concluding paragraph of the 
17th Article of the Church of England. In a cer- 
tain sense, the most absurd errors, and the most 
heinous crimes may be said to be according to the 
Divine Will ; since God does not interpose His om- 
nipotence to prevent them. But "in our doings" 
says that Article, " that will of God is to be followed 
which we have expressly declared in Holy Writ." 

Men only delude themselves by giving way to 
that craving after infallibility, which is part of our 
corrupt nature. — For it is plainly not God's intention 
to exempt us from all danger of mistake, and all 
labour of inquiry, and the responsibility of exercis- 
ing our own judgments, whether good or bad, in 
matters of the greatest importance. 

In all the most important affairs of this life, we 
are obliged to act upon mere probabilities, and some- 
times, very weak probabilities. With respect to this 
life, as well as the life to come, our highest interests 
require us to act continually with regard to the fu- 
ture. Yet, we have no infallible guidance at all 
with respect to what will happen to-morrow. We 
are left to calculate, as we best can, what is most 

o2 



196 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

likely; and consider carefully what is, under all the 
circumstances, the most prudent course for us to take. 
Nay, it is very remarkable that our knowledge is 
much more full and complete of things which do not 
directly concern us, than of those which do. We 
can foretell the motions of the heavenly bodies for 
centuries to come ; but, as to things at our own doors, 
we " know not what a day may bring forth. " The 
things within our foresight and certain knowledge 
are out of our power ; and the things within our 
power are out of our foresight 

It has been objected to Prayer that it is unneces- 
sary, because God must know our wants, whether 
we supplicate Him or not. — True; He knows our 
wants, but not our humble supplications to Him for 
aid, unless we make such supplications. Now, it is 
to our prayers, not to our wants, that His gifts are 
promised. He does not say " Need, and ye shall 
have ; want, and ye shall find ;" but, " Ask, and ye 
shall have ; seek, and ye shall find." 

A well-framed Liturgy in constant use, is not only 
a help to public worship, but a standing monitor, 
both to the Minister and his Congregation; the 
Minister, when he is reading it, testifying, with his 
own mouth, against the errors, if such there be, of 



MISCELLANEOUS. 197 

his own preaching; and the Congregation being 
warned either to supply what is wanting, or to re- 
ject what is faulty, or to inquire respecting what is 
doubtful. . 

That Infidelity is daily spreading, fe a complaint 
one hears on all sides. It behoves every good Chris- 
tian to look narrowly for the spring of that bitter 
stream which is welling fast, though often silently, 
all around us. Now r , any one who considers the 
tendency of much of the teaching abroad in the pre- 
sent day to create and foster, irreligion, will see 
rather less reason to wonder at the amount of it that 
now exists, than ground for alarming apprehensions 
of its increase. — For, let a man be but once con- 
vinced — 1st, that Christianity cannot stand the test 
of inquiry — 2ndly, that he has no ground for cer- 
tainty as to the real belief of those who teach it, — 
3rdly, that Scripture need not be studied; — 4thly, 
that he had better withdraw his thoughts as much 
as possible from the subject, since otherwise, he 
could not but exercise that private judgment which 
is forbidden ; — and 5thly, that Christianity is mainly 
a system of outward ordinances, — let him but adopt 
all these notions, and what is there to stand between 
him and Infidelity, or Indifferentism ? 

When men talk of the necessity of accommodat- 



198 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

ing the religion preached by the Apostles to the 
tastes and manners of men, they forget that the great 
aim of Christianity is to regenerate plan's Nature. 
Christianity does not (as the law of Moses did) per- 
mit things on account of the "hardness" of men's 
hearts ; because it brings the promise of the Spirit, 
which is given to change our hearts, and make us 
" new creatures." Accordingly, though the Pagans 
in Italy were, in Paul's time, fond of altars and sac- 
rifices, images, shows, and gaudy processions, that 
Apostle never thought of accommodating the simple 
worship of the Church to their tastes ; and the Greeks 
at Corinth were quite as fond as the modern school- 
men of subtle and abstruse inquiries. Paul was so 
far from indulging them therein, that, for that very 
reason, he determined to "know nothing among 
them, but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." 

The liberality of some men, is but indifference 
clad in the garb of candour. 

Tenderness towards the faulty, is charity; tender- 
ness towards the fault, is indifference about right 
and wrong. 

If our religion is not true, we are bound to change 
it ; if it is true, we are bound to propagate it. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 199 

The same kinds of error which at first were 
against the Christian religion, found their way into 
it afterwards, in corresponding corruptions of it. 

It has been said that in former times, and for 
those times, Monasteries were commendable institu- 
tions. But those who say this, when contrasting the 
learning, peace, and piety of the Monasteries with the 
ignorance and irreligion and perpetual wars of " the 
Middle Ages," forget that it was the very system of 
which these were a part, which made the world so dark 
and unquiet ; and then, like the ivy, which has re- 
duced a fine building to a shattered ruin, they held 
together the fragments of that ruin. 

Nothing is really harmless that is mistaken for a 
virtue. In all pursuits, but most of all in the great 
one of religion, to think that we are advancing when 
we are not, is a positive evil. 

Too religious, in the proper sense of the word, we 
cannot be. We cannot have the religious sentiments 
and principles too strong, or too deeply fixed, if only 
they have a right object. We cannot love God too 
warmly — or honour Him too highly — or strive to 
serve Him too earnestly — or trust Him too impli- 
citly ; because our duty is "to love Him with all our 



200 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

heart, and all our soul, and all our mind, and all our 
strength. 7 ' But too religious, in another sense, we 
may, and are very apt to be — that is, we are very 
apt to make for ourselves too many objects of reli- 
gious feeling. 

The difference between religious knowledge, pro- 
perly so-called, and what may be more properly 
styled theological philosophy, may be thus illus- 
trated. — The printed tables in our almanacks, shew- 
ing the times of the sun's rising and setting at each 
period of the year — the appearances of the moon — 
the times of eclipses — the variations of the tides in 
different places, and the like, supply to plain un- 
learned men that needful information upon many 
points of daily practical use which they can under- 
stand ; whereas, the explanations which modern dis- 
coveries in natural philosophy have established of 
most of those points, would be wholly unintelligible 
to them. — It is not the less possible, nor the less use- 
ful, for any one to know the times when the sun gives 
light to this earth, even though he should not know 
whether it is the sun that moves, or the earth. 

Now, it is just such practical knowledge as this 
that the Scriptures give us of the Christian Dispen- 
sation. — They afford practical directions, but no 
theory. But there is this important difference be- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 201 

tween the two cases — the human faculties could, and 
at length did (though it is beyond the great mass of 
mankind) discover the true theory of the appearances 
and motions of the heavenly bodies. In matters 
pertaining to divine revelation, on the contrary, 
though there must actually be a true theory (since 
there must be reasons, and those known to God Him- 
self, even if hidden from every creature, why He 
proceeded in this way, rather than in that), this 
theory never can be known to us ; because the whole 
subject is so far above the human powers, that we 
must have remained, but for revelation, in the darkest 
ignorance concerning it. Many curious and valuable 
truths has the world discovered by philosophy (or, 
as our translators express it, "wisdom"); but "the 
world" (says Paul,) "by wisdom knew not God:" 
of which assertion, the writings of the ancient hea- 
then philosophers now extant, afford sufficient proof. 

When the Sacred Writers speak with commenda- 
tion of " knowing God," they always mean such a 
knowledge as is attended with the practical effects 
of fearing, loving and obeying Him. " The fear of 
the Lord, that is wisdom ; and to depart from evil, 
that is understanding" (Job. xxviii. 28). "He 
judged the cause of the poor and needy, then it was 
well with him : was not this to know Me t saith the 
Lord" (Jer. xxii. 16). " He that loveth is born of 



202 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

God, and Tcnoweth God : he that loveth not hath not 
known God" (1 John iv. 7). 

The Gospel substitutes for precise rules sublime 
principles ; thus leaving the Christian to be " a law 
unto himself." 

All lawgivers forbid us to steal our neighbour's 
goods ; but it is only the Divine Law Giver who 
looks, not merely on the outward appearance, but 
looks upon the heart, that can effectually forbid us 
to covet them. 

All Gaming, since it implies a desire to profit at 
the expense of another, involves a breach of the tenth 
Commandment. 

The King, who proposed a reward to the man who 
should invent a new pleasure, would have deserved 
well of the world, if he had stipulated that it should 
be innocent. 

Much of the declamation, by which popular as- 
semblies are often misled, against what is called, 
without any distinct meaning, the " doctrine of ex- 
pediency," (as if the "right" and the "expedient" 
were in opposition) might be silenced by asking the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 203 

simple question, u Do you then admit that the course 
you recommend is inexpedient?" 

To avoid the two opposite evils, — the liability to 
sudden and violent changes, and the adherence to 
established usage, when inconvenient or mischievous, 
— to give the requisite stability to governments and 
other institutions without shutting the door against 
improvement, this is a problem which both ancient 
and modern legislators, have not well succeeded in 
solving. Some, like the ancient Medes and Per- 
sians, and like Lycurgus, have attempted to pro- 
hibit all change ; but those who constantly appeal 
to the wisdom of their ancestors, as a sufficient reason 
for perpetuating everything these have established, 
forget two things ; first, that they cannot hope for 
ever to persuade all successive generations of men, 
that there was once one generation of such infallible 
wisdom as to be entitled to dictate to all their de- 
scendants for ever, so as to make the earth, in fact, 
the possession, not of the living but of the dead ; 
and, secondly, that, even supposing our ancestors 
gifted with such infallibility, many cases must 
arise in which it may be reasonably doubted whether 
they themselves would not have advocated, if living, 
changes called for by altered circumstances ; even as 
our own forefathers, who denoted the southern quarter 



204 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

from meridies (noon), would not have been so foolish 
as to retain that language had they come to live in 
this hemisphere, where the sun at noon is in the north. 

Nature does not give the same degree of strength 
to the footstalks of the leaves of a tree, — destined as 
these are, to be shed every year, — and to the roots, 
which are designed to hold the trunk fast in the 
ground — If she did, either the one would be far too 
strong, or the other far too weak, or both of these in- 
conveniences might take place at once ; yet this is 
the error committed by almost all governments. 
The same machinery is provided to facilitate or to, 
impede every change alike, in great or in small mat- 
ters ; the same mode is prescribed for the main- 
taining, or abrogating, or introducing of every law 
and every institution alike. In Great Britain, for in- 
stance, an Act for regulating the manufacture of soap, 
or an Act which should introduce a complete change 
into the Constitution — which should take away or 
restore the liberties of half the nation, — must go 
through exactly the same forms, and be passed or re- 
jected by the same authorities under the same regu- 
lations : in short, in this respect, the Government is 
like a tree whose leaf- stalks and main roots, have 
neither more nor less toughness and stoutness the 
one than the other. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 205 

A political prediction publicly uttered will often 
have had, or be supposed to have had, a great share* 
in bringing about its own fulfilment. He who gives 
out, for instance, that the people will certainly be 
dissatisfied with such and such a law, is, in this, 
doing his utmost to make them dissatisfied. And 
this being the case in all unfavourable, as well as 
favourable, predictions, some men lose their deserved 
credit for political sagacity, through their fear of 
contributing to produce the evils they apprehend; 
while others, again, contribute to evil results by 
their incapacity to keep their anticipations locked up 
in their own bosoms, and by their dread of not ob- 
taining deserved credit. It would be desirable to 
provide for such men a relief like that which the 
servant of King Midas found, due care, however, being 
taken that there should be no whispering reeds to 
divulge it. 

To love both Power and Liberty is not very 
consistent. 

In forming a judgment of any one's character, the 
first thing to be looked at, is to see whether he have 
any perceptible, ruling passion; for it is evident 
that, though the whole of a man's character does 
not depend upon it, since it may be variously modi- 



206 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

fied by otter passions, and by principle, yet it must 
ever be an important feature. A man might give a 
very full detail of the business and transactions of 
each separate department of our government, and yet 
convey but a faint idea of our Constitution, compared 
with one who should in a few lines point out the 
Xvpwv of it, and the checks upon that. So also, it 
is not enough to be able to enumerate a man's good 
and bad qualities, without adverting to his ruling 
passion. It is a point of some nicety, since we are 
not to be led altogether by a man's conduct ; for the 
same conduct is not only consistent with, but may 
spring from, different passions ; nor by his profes- 
sions, nor what his reason assents to ; yet, each of 
these, though it may not be precisely conformable to 
his ruling passion, will, generally be, in some mea- 
sure, tinged by it. Perhaps, one of the best cri- 
terions (when a man can, as in the case of himself, 
obtain knowledge of it) is his castles-in-the air. A 
reverie is, on the one hand, not regulated by the 
corrections of sober reason, and yet, on the other 
hand, is not usually influenced by the sudden inter- 
ruption of those casual passions, which, in practice, 
so often interrupt a man's general plan of life; it is 
in a reverie, therefore, that the ruling passion bears 
the most complete sway. Some men's day-dreams 
terminate (for that is the main point) in glory * 



MISCELLANEOUS. 207 

some, in power; some in beneficence; some stop 
short at wealth ; some in comfort, and tranquil re- 
tirement. This last case seems to bear reference to 
a sort of negative ruling passion, which is by no 
means uncommon. 

It is generally easier, and better, to direct and 
modify the ruling passion, than to extirpate it ; and 
there is scarce any that may not be engaged on 
the side of virtue : Laudis amove times f What is 
the praise of men compared with the praise of jiGod ? 
Is a man eager for knowledge ? Heaven must be 
set before him, as the place where we shall " see 
face to face" and " know even as we are known " — Is 
he ambitious? Such an one may be made to be 
eager to rise to a more exalted state of existence — 
Is his ruling passion philanthropy ? Heaven presents 
itself as a place where multitudes will be happy 
around him ; and, especially, w^here the distressing and 
perplexing appearance of evil will be explained, and 
the Divine Benevolence clearly made manifest. 

Abstain from the amusements, which are the 
most congenial to your peculiar, innate disposition, 
or your peculiar, professional pursuits. A man 
should never do that in jest, which he may be sus- 
pected of doing in earnest. 



208 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

There is not so much pleasure in gaining, as in 
the act of gaining. — If all our wishes were gratified, 
most of our pleasures would be destroyed. 

No flattery — to use the word in the sense of un- 
due praise merely — has such influence as the daily 
droppings of domestic flattery. Laudari a laudato 
viro, is what every one would prize most ; but other 
praises may make up in tale what they want in 
weight. 

Attachment to Relations, is the earliest and the 
latest. 

It is a fact, and a very curious one, that many 
people find they can best attend to any serious mat- 
ter, when they are occupied with something else, 
that requires a little, and but a little, attention ; such 
as, working with the needle (which, by the bye, 
gives the woman a great advantage over men), 
cutting open paper leaves, or for want of some such 
employment .. fiddling any how with the fingers 
(which most are prone to when earnestly engaged). 
Now, as the best philosophers are agreed, that the 
mind cannot actually attend to more than one thing 
at a time, but when it so appears, is, in reality, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 209 

shifting with prodigious rapidity, backwards and 
forwards from one to the other, it seems strange, 
that attention to one train of ideas should be aided 
by this continual, though unperceived, distraction to 
another. The truth is, I conceive, that it is next 
to impossible to keep the mind closely fixed to any 
one train of thought, except for a very short time ; 
and that, when we suppose this to be the case, there 
are, in reality, continual little digressions ; which 
frequently do not (often do) leave a trace on the 
memory ; which are excited, either by some casual 
association with one of the ideas of the train, or by 
bodily sensations, and from which, the attention is 
continually returning to its former course. If any 
one first attends to any subject, as he thinks, ex- 
clusively, and afterwards beginning to cut open 
paper-leaves, finds that he attends no w T orse than 
before, it seems quite evident that he did not before 
attend more exclusively than after ; and consequently 
that he had then, though he knew it not, his at- 
tention as much drawn off by extraneous objects. 
Taking it then for granted, that we seldom, or 
never, can prevent entirely those occasional wander- 
ings of attention, and never can wholly confine our 
thoughts to the main object, the best way, therefore, 
must be to present to them some subordinate object, 
which shall be just interesting enough to withhold 



210 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

our attention from those objects, which our roving 
senses are perpetually apt to present to us, and yet 
not enough to draw off much of our attention (such 
as needlework, to one who is familiar with it, but 
not to a child who is just learning it) : and this sub- 
ordinate object will, not only, draw off our attention 
from the surrounding objects of sense, but will also 
check those wandering thoughts which are suggested 
by the principal train of ideas ; for being associated 
with this principal train, it will form a sort of topical 
memory, and will thus perpetually recall us to what 
we are about. Hence, the great advantage of some 
such employment as needlework, turning, &c. Hence 
too, though it is reckoned uncivil, when another is 
reading or speaking to you, to look out of the win- 
dow, or play with a dog, as implying inattention, 
yet we should be aware, that it does not necessarily 
imply any such thing. Hence, too, the chief ad- 
vantage of meditating on paper ; the act of writing 
withholds the attention ; and the words written are 
more even than the above topical kind of memory, 
for they present to you the past part of the trains, 
first, in regular order; secondly, connected with 
them, not by an extemporaneous association, as 
above, but by an established and habitual one. 

In Affliction, Labour and Duty have been found to 



MISCELLANEOUS. 211 

have a soothing effect, when an attempt at seeking 
amusement would excite loathing. 

If you wish to shew how well you would undergo 
trials from which you are exempt, shew it by your 
way of sustaining those to which you are subjected* 

Gay Spirits are always spoken of as a sign of 
happiness, though every one knows to the contrary. 
A cockchafer is never so lively, as when a pin is 
stuck through his tail ; and a hot floor makes Bruin 
dance. 

Happiness is no laughing matter. 

Disgust, contempt, and laughter are nearly akin ; 
he who enjoys nothing and values nothing, will 
laugh at everything. 

Of all secondary motives, there are, certainly, 
none that have more influence, on faith, and feeling, 
and practice, than the example and sympathy of 
others. Where indeed is the man, who can presume 
to say, that his faith would be equally firm, if no 
one held it beside himself? or that his feelings and 
his conduct, would be the same, if he found that, in 
both, he stood perfectly single ? 

P2 



212 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

To take the same steps with another, in widely- 
different circumstances, is to depart from, not to 
follow, his example. 

It may be said, almost without qualification, that 
Wisdom consists in the ready and accurate percep- 
tion of analogies. Without the former quality, 
knowledge of the past is uninstructive ; without the 
latter, it is deceptive. 

• There is a kind of man, that may be called the 
mirror of a wise man ; which gives a perfect repre- 
sentation, only left-handed. He knows that a wise 
man is neither too hasty nor too slow — too trustful 
nor too distrustful — keeps the mean between timidity 
and rashness, &c. ; and so he resolves to have just 
enough, and not too much, of each quality ; — only 
he takes the wrong occasions for each; cautious, 
where he ought to be bold, and daring, where he 
ought to be cautious ; distrusting those worthy of 
confidence, and trusting those who are not ; dilatory, 
where promptitude is called for, and hasty, where he 
should take time ; obstinate, where concession would 
be right, and yielding, where firmness is needed ; in 
short, acting like Hans with Grettel, who stuck a 
knife in his sleeve, because that was the proper place 
for the needle ; and put a kid in his pocket, because 



MISCELLANEOUS. 213 

that was the place for a knife/' &c. Such is the 
left-handed representation of a wise man. 

A man who, in conjunction with other qualities, is 
remarked for a simple and natural way of speaking 
and acting, and whose opinions and conduct are 
marked by independence and originality, will, per- 
haps, be admired and imitated by others, who for- 
get that an imitation of one who is no imitator, 
must, in one most important point, be quite unlike ; 
and that one who does not think for himself, must 
differ greatly from one who does. 

People in general judge of every separate action 
as good or bad, and seem to have a very imperfect 
idea of character. Virtuous or vicious are terms not 
strictly applicable to any action, but to the agent, 
and his disposition and design, of which the acts are 
only the indicative. Thus, if a man be found guilty 
of a cool and deliberate falsehood, or of a designed 
malicious misrepresentation, and equivocation (which 
is a lie guarded), his good actions might, in other 
respects, be beneficial ; but they no more deserve the 
name of virtuous, than the services of rooks in rid- 
ding the field of grubs, or of vultures in draining 
away carrion. 



214 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

A lobster (and the same may be seen in a prawn) 
always faces you, as if ready to maintain bis post, 
and do battle ; but when you approach, be gives a 
flap with bis tail, and flies back two or three feet ; 
and so on, again and again; always shewing his 
assailants a bold front, and always retreating. — -I 
have met with many such men. 

There are snakes as venomous as the rattle- snake, 
only they have no warning rattle. 

There are some rare instances, and as curious as 
rare, of men who, from their youth up, have lost so 
little, and gained so little, that at any age, they are 
neither less nor more than clever boys, with all the 
mental and bodily elasticity of a lively youth, and 
with all the mental immaturity and unsteadiness of 
thought likewise. Their' s is a perpetual spring-time, 
which keeps everything fresh and green, and ripens 
nothing. 

" A knave is one knave, but a fool is many." A 
w r eak man, in a place of authority, will often do more 
mischief than a bad man. For an intelligent, but 
dishonest man, will do only as much hurt as serves 
his own purpose ; but a weak man is likely to be 
made the tool of several dishonest men. A lion only 



MISCELLANEOUS. 215 

kills as many as will supply him with food ; but a 
horse, if ridden by several warlike horsemen, may 
prove the death of more than ten lions would kill. - 

To attempt to convince some men by even the 
strongest reasons and most cogent arguments, would 
be like King Lear putting a letter before a man 
without eyes, and saying, " Mark but the penning 
of it;' 7 to which he answers, " Were all the letters 
suns I could not see one," 

Some persons have an excessive dread of being- 
misled by the eloquence of another. A man has 
been known to shun the acquaintance of another, of 
whom he knew no harm, solely from his dread of 
him as a man who, he imagined, " could prove any-, 
thing." Men of a low tone of morality, judging 
from themselves, take for granted, that whoever 
"has a giant's strength will not scruple to use it 
like a giant." 

It seems to be commonly taken for granted, that 
whenever the feelings are excited they are, of course, 
over -excited. Now, so far is this from being true — 
so far is it from being the fact — that men are 
universally, or even generally, in danger of being 
misled in conduct by an excess of feeling, that the 



216 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

reverse is, at least, as often the case. The more 
generous feeling, such as Compassion, Gratitude, 
Devotion, nay, even rational and rightly -directed 
Self Love, Hope, and Fear, are oftener defective 
than excessive : and that, even in the estimation of 
the parties themselves, if they are well-principled, 
judicious, and candid, men. Do the feelings of 
such a man, when contemplating, for instance, 
the doctrines and the promises of the Christian 
Religion, usually come up to the standard which he 
himself thinks reasonable? And not only in the 
case of Religion, but in many others also, a man 
will often wonder at, and be rather ashamed of, the 
coldness and languor of his own feelings, compared 
with what the occasion calls for : and even make 
efforts to rouse in himself such emotions as he is 
conscious his reason would approve. But the feel- 
ings, propensities, and sentiments of our nature, 
are not, like the Intellectual Faculties, under the 
direct control of Volition. The distinction is much 
the same as between the voluntary, and the involun- 
tary, actions of different parts of the body. One 
may, by a deliberate act of the Will, set himself to 
calculate, — to reason, — to recall historical facts, &c, 
just as he does to move any of his limbs : on the 
other hand, a Volition to hope or fear, to love or 
hate, to feel devotion or pity, and the like, is as 



MISCELLANEOUS. 217 

ineffectual as to will that the pulsations of the heart, 
or the secretions of the liver, should be altered. 
Good sense suggests, in each case, an analogous 
remedy. It is in vain to form a Will to quicken or 
lower the circulation ; but we may, by a voluntary 
act, swallow a medicine which will have that effect ; 
and so also, though we cannot, by a direct act of 
volition, excite or allay any Sentiment or Emotion, 
we may, by a voluntary act, fill the understanding 
with such thoughts as shall operate on the Feelings. 
Such being the state of the case, why is it that the 
idea of unfair artifice should be so commonly asso- 
ciated, not only with Rhetoric in general, but most 
especially with that part of it known as the address 
to the Feelings or Active Principles of our nature, and 
usually stigmatized as " An Appeal to the Passions 
instead of the Reason ?" — though no other artifice is 
necessarily employed by the Orator than a man of 
sense makes use of towards himself. Many different 
circumstances combine to produce this effect. In the 
first place, the intellectual powers being, as has been 
said, under the immediate control of the "Will, which 
the Feelings, Sentiments, &c, are not, an address 
to the Understanding is consequently from the na- 
ture of the case, direct; to the Feelings, indirect. 
The conclusion you wish to draw, you may state 
plainly, as such ; and avow your intention of pro- 



218 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

ducing reasons which shall effect a conviction of that 
conclusion : you may even entreat the hearer's steady 
attention to the point to be proved, and to the pro- 
cess of argument by which it is to be established. 
But this, for the reasons above mentioned, is widely 
different from the process by which we operate on 
the Feelings. No passion, sentiment, or emotion, 
is excited by thinking about it, and attending to it ; 
but by thinking about, and attending to, such ob- 
jects as are calculated to awaken it. Hence it is, 
that the more oblique and indirect process, which 
takes place when we are addressing ourselves to this 
part of the human mind, is apt to suggest the idea 
of trick and artifice ; although it is, as I have said, 
just such as a wise man practises towards himself. 

When, however, it is said, that a good and wise 
man often has to act the part of an orator towards 
himself, in respect of that very point — the excite- 
ment of the Feelings — it must not be forgotten that 
there is danger of a man's being misled by his own 
ingenuity — of exercising on himself, when under the 
influence of some passion, a most pernicious oratori- 
cal power, by pleading the cause, as it were, before 
himself, of that passion. And the man of superior 
ingenuity and eloquence, will do this more skilfully 
than an ordinary man, and will thence be likely to 
be the more effectually self-deceived : for though he 



MISCELLANEOUS. 219 

may be superior to the other in judgment, as well as 
in ingenuity, it is to be remembered that, while his 
judgment is likely to be, in his own cause, biassed 
and partially blinded, his ingenuity is called forth to 
the utmost ; and though it requires greater skill to 
mislead him than an ordinary man, he himself pos- 
sesses that superior skill. It is no feeble blow that 
will destroy a giant ; but if a giant resolve to kill 
himself, it is a giant that deals the blow. 

The like takes place if it be anger, selfish cu- 
pidity, unjust partiality in favour of a relative or 
friend, party- spirit, or any other passion, that may 
be operating. For, universally, men are but too 
apt to take more pains in justifying their propensities 
than it would cost to control them ; and a man of 
superior powers will often be, in this way, entrapped 
by his own ingenuity, like a spider entangled in the 
web she has herself spun. There is no one whom he 
is likely so much, and -so hurtfully, to mislead as 
himself, if he be not sedulously on his guard against 
this self-deceit. 

If a man, who feels himself capable of generous 
and exalted conduct (I do not mean, feels that he 
shall always act thus, — for who dares promise him- 
self this ? — but who feels that it is not beyond his 
conception, or unnatural to him), measures others 



220 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

by his own standard, he must be first disappointed, 
and then dissatisfied, with almost all the world, 
and if he then comes to measure himself by their 
standard, and to be content with coming up to it, it 
is evident he will act below what he is capable of, 
and what is consequently expected of him; for every 
man shall be judged " according to that he hath, and 
not according to that he hath not." His only way, 
then, is to fancy himself the only generous being in 
the world. I say to fancy, because there is no reason 
he should not believe in the abstract, that there are 
others ; but he should never expect it, in any one 
instance, till it has been most copiously and clearly 
proved by experience. It may be objected that this 
will make him think over highly of himself, and 
"despise others." I deny both — for he is not to 
think his conduct better than others, only his capa- 
bilities ; and thus, feeling that more is required of 
him, as being placed in a higher walk of duty, he 
will even be the less satisfied with his conformity to 
so lofty a standard. But, though his frequent failures 
will humble him, yet, as a fair and due sense of 
dignity, which arises from a consciousness of su- 
perior station, is not only right, but needful, in a 
gentleman, a peer or a king, to make them fill 
their stations gracefully ; so it is here : that proper 
sense of his own moral dignity, is necessary for 



MISCELLANEOUS. 221 

a great and generous disposition, if he would act 
up to his character. The excess thereof will be 
checked by habits of true piety, which cannot but 
make him feel his own littleness, in the strongest 
manner ; and by continually asking himself " Who 
made thee to differ from another ?" or, " What 
hast thou that thou didst not receive ?" he will 
be guarded against despising his inferiors. For ge- 
nerous and ungenerous pride are, not only different 
(as all would allow), but, in most points, opposite : 
a man of the former character makes allowances for 
others, which he will not make for himself; the 
latter, allowances for himself, which he will not for 
others : he is ready enough to think that this, and 
that, is not good enough for him; but the other 
thinks a base action not good enough for him, and 
does not regard his superiority as a privilege to act 
in a manner which, in his view, would degrade him 
from it ; and while doing the most generous actions 
himself, as things of course, he will make the 
readiest allowance for others' deficiencies. He will 
do good without calculating upon much gratitude ; 
yet will be grateful, with most generous ardour, 
himself. To take any unfair advantages, or even 
to take all fair ones — to press his rights to the 
utmost — to press close to the limits of what is 
wrong, and anxiously consider whether he may be 



222 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS, 

allowed to do this, or omit that, — he disdains and 
would feel degraded by it. 

Some men are so excessively acute at detecting 
imperfections, that they scarcely notice excellencies. 
In looking at a peacock's train, they would fix on 
every spot where the feathers were worn, or the 
colours faded, and see nothing else. 

Men, in general, are apt to consider him as the 
wisest who professes to explain the most ; and him 
as the most ignorant who is the most ready to con- 
fess his ignorance. 

Those who are ambitious of originality, and aim 
at it, are necessarily led by others, since they seek 
to be different from them. 

There is many a rashly -cautious man. A moth 
rushes into a flame, and a horse obstinately stands 
still in a stable on fire ; and both are burnt. Some 
men are prone to moth-rashness, and some to horse- 
rashness, and some to both. 

The generality of readers give a man credit for as 
much, and only as much, superiority as he assumes ; 
and conclude anything to be contemptible which they 



MISCELLANEOUS. 223 

see treated with great contempt ; unless indeed that 
the writer assures his readers over and over again, 
and with strong observations, that a work is utterly 
contemptible. In this case they begin, at least some- 
times, to suspect that it is not, This is like some 
of the over- done bulletins which annihilate a corps 
of the enemy to-day, and then rout them again to- 
morrow, and then again announce a third victory 
over them next day, till at last people begin to doubt 
whether they have gained any victory at all. 

One sometimes meets with an " ill-used man;" a 
man with whom everything goes wrong ; who is 
always thinking how happy he should be to exchange 
his present wretched situation for such and such 
another ; and when he has obtained it, finding that 
he is far worse off than before, and seeking a remove ; 
and as soon as he has obtained that, discovering that 
his last situation was just the thing for him, and 
was beginning to open to him a prospect of unbroken 
happiness, far beyond his present state, &c. To 
him a verse of Shakespere well applies : — 

" O thoughts of men accurst ! 

Past, and to come, seem "best, things present worst." 

One is reminded of a man travelling in the African 
desert surrounded by mirage, with a (seeming) lake 
behind him, and a lake before him, which, when he 



224 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

has reached, he finds to be still the same barren and 
scorching sand. A friend aptly remarked M that 
man's happiness has no present tense." 

If a thing is right to be done, it must be right 
that somebody should do it. Is there any reason 
why I should not be that somebody ? 

There may be great faults in reference to small 
things. 

The peculiarities of women dawn at so very early 
an age, and are so much less variable than their 
education, that I cannot believe them to be entirely, 
or even chiefly, artificial. Even their education 
itself, is, in a great degree, to be traced up to 
nature; for, if Eve had the education of her own 
daughters, they would, of course, learn to think, 
feel, and act as she had been taught by nature, and 
so on. 

It may be affirmed as a general rule, that women 
have much less totality than men. 

Woman is like the reed, which bends to every 
breeze, but breaks not in the tempest. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 225 

Shakespere has, I think, in great measure reversed 
the male and female characters in Macbeth and his 
wife. He is readily open to the impressions of fear, 
pity, remorse, &c, and yet bears up against them 
to the last. She is unmoved, and when she does at 
length feel, she dies of it 

Mushroom-celebrity is the result of puzzle-headed- 
ness. A man hardly can rise to very sudden popu- 
larity without being (along with some cleverness), 
somewhat puzzle-headed. For the way to rise to 
rapid celebrity is to be a plausible advocate of pre- 
vailing doctrines ; and especially to defend, with 
some eloquence and novelty, something which men 
like to believe, but have no good reason for believing. 
And this a skilful dissembler will never do so well 
as one who is himself the dupe of his own fallacies, 
and brings them forward, therefore, with an air of 
simple earnestness which implies his being, with 
whatever ingenuity and eloquence, puzzle-headed. 
A very clear-headed man must always perceive some 
of the truths which are generally overlooked, and 
must have detected some of the popular fallacies ; in 
short, he must be somewhat in advance of the ol 
woXkol of his contemporaries : and if he has the 
courage to speak his mind fairly, he must wait till 
the next generation, at least, for his popularity. 

Q 



226 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

The fame of clever, but puzzle-headed, advocates of 
vulgar errors will be like a mushroom which springs 
up in a night and rots in a day ; while that of the 
clear-headed lover of truth will be a tree " seris 
factura nepotibus umbram" He must take his 
chance for the result. If he is wrong. in the doc- 
trines he maintains, or the measures he proposes, 
at least it is not for the sake of immediate popular 
favour. If he is right, it will be found out in time, 
though perhaps not in his time. The preparers of 
the Mummies were (Herodotus says) driven out of 
the house, by the family who had engaged their 
services, with execrations and stones ; but their 
work remains sound after three thousand years. 

If human nature were not, always and everywhere, 
in the most important points, substantially the same, 
history could furnish no instruction ; if men's man- 
ners and conduct, circumstantially and externally, 
were not infinitely varied in various times and regions, 
hardly any one could fail to profit by that instruc- 
tion. As it is, much diligence is called for in recog- 
nizing, as it were, the same plant in different stages 
of its growth, and in all the varieties resulting from 
climate and culture, soil and season. 

The use of estimating rightly the temptations of 



MISCELLANEOUS. 227 

others, is in order the better to understand our own. 
If we look only to the mote in our brother's eye, no 
improvement in knowledge can answer any purpose 
but to increase our condemnation. 

When the sun's rays are let into a room, clouds 
of dust will be seen floating in the air which before 
were unseen, and. various stains and spots will 
appear, which were before unnoticed. So it is with 
the spiritual and moral light of the Gospel, by which, 
as the conscience becomes more tender, more vigilant, 
and better regulated, we shall be given increased 
insight into our own defects. 

The distinct uses of Scripture, in all that relates 
to morals, and of natural conscience, may be illus- 
trated by the comparison of a sun-dial and a clock. 
The clock has the advantage of being always at 
hand to be consulted at any hour of the day or 
night. But then the clock is liable to go wrong, 
and vary from the true time. And it has no power 
in itself of correcting its own errors, so that these 
may go on increasing to any extent, unless it be 
from time to time regulated by the dial, which is 
alone the unerring guide. Thus our consciences are 
liable to deceive us even to the greatest extent, or 
to give wrong judgment, if they are not continually 

Q 2 



228 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

corrected and regulated by a reference to the Word 
of God, which alone — like his Sun in the natural 
world — affords an infallible guide. But while pro- 
fessing to take Scripture as such a guide, we should 
beware, when we consult it, of acting like a man who 
should pretend to regulate his clocks and watches by 
the sun-dial, and should go to it in the night time 
with a candle which would throw the shadow which- 
ever way he would. 

All virtuous actions are actions of the mind. 
From overlooking the truth, so obvious when stated, 
that outward actions are only so far morally good or 
evil as they are a sign of what is within. Casuists, 
in particular, have often fallen into hurtful errors by 
distinguishing venial from mortal sins, according to 
the amount, for instance, of money stolen or the like, 
rather than according to the disposition of the agent. 
Indeed so irregularly and promiscuously introduced, 
in general, are the philosophical and popular senses 
of the words " moral and immoral, vicious and vir- 
tuous," that while every one would allow modesty, 
gentleness, liberality, &c, to be " moral virtues;" 
yet a man would not usually be said to lead an 
immoral life, who was clear of all offences against 
the laws, and also chaste and temperate ; though he 
might indulge the worldly, and the more truly dia- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 229 

bolical propensities, such as covetousness, vanity, 
falsehood, arrogance, envy, malice and cruelty. 

The very definition of a moral duty implies its 
universal obligation, independent of all enactment 
A positive precept concerns a thing that is right 
because commanded ; a moral precept respects a 
thing commanded because it is right. A Jew, for 
instance, was bound both to honour his parents, and 
also to worship at Jerusalem, but the former w^s 
commanded because it was right ; and the latter was 
right because it was commanded. 



Some persons seem to submit to the laws of their 
country in the same manner as they do to the 
changes of the seasons, and the rising and setting 
of the sun, merely because they cannot help it ; and 
not as any part of religious and moral duty ; not- 
withstanding the commands so forcibly laid down in 
Scripture to "be subject to the powers that be, as 
ordained of God; not only for wrath, but also for 
conscience sake." 

The king is entitled to more obedience than a 
justice of the peace, but is not more entitled to 
obedience. For we are to " submit ourselves to 
every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.' 7 If 



230 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

you owe fivepence to one man, and five pounds to 
another, you are equally bound to pay both debts, 
though the debts themselves are not equal. 

Right and Obligation must be reciprocal ; what- 
ever the lawful magistrate has a right to enjoin, the 
subject must be bound to obey. 

It is remarkable that two opposite extremes with 
respect to Law, are sometimes found in the same 
person : the one is the extreme of not regarding 
obedience to it as a duty, of not regarding anything 
as right because commanded, or wrong because for- 
bidden ; and the other is the extreme of regarding 
it as the whole duty, of looking only to what is 
commanded and forbidden by law, from a persuasion 
that in any proceeding allowed by law there can be 
nothing morally wrong. At one time, if it suits his 
convenience to infringe positive regulations, he will 
plead the law of nature, and urge, for instance, that 
wild animals are the natural property of any one 
who can seize them ; or that all men have a natural 
right to import whatever goods they please, without 
making any payment, except to the seller ; and that 
though the law has limited these rights, and guarded 
the limitation by penalties, yet if he chooses to risk 
the penalty, he is doing nothing morally wrong : 



MISCELLANEOUS. 231 

forgetting that whatever property he possesses is his 
by the law of the land and by nothing else : and yet 
at another time, perhaps, the same man, when press- 
ing his legal rights to the most unfair extreme, will 
justify his hard dealing by urging that he does 
nothing contrary to law. 

Of all abuses of law, the greatest and most per- 
nicious, because to it all the rest may generally be 
referred, is the setting up of the laws as a system of 
morality, and making them the guide of our con- 
science, which a law never can be. And for these 
reasons: 1st, it omits whatever is not an object of 
compulsion, and whatever cannot be clearly defined ; 
2nd, its punishments are not proportioned to the 
moral guilt of offences ; 3rd, it looks only to the 
outward action, not to the heart. This error is the 
more dangerous, because there is so much of truth 
incorporated with it. It is certainly true, that we 
ought to do what the law enjoins ; and hence the 
mistake of supposing that this is sufficient, though 
we do nothing more. It is true, that we ought not 
to do what the laws forbid ; the error is in reckoning 
everything right that is not forbidden by them, and 
everything that is, as wrong in exact proportion, to 
the punishment they denounce against it. 

Men are apt to think, that because the mode and 



232 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

occasion of undefined duties, such as contribution to 
charitable objects, are left to their discretion, it is 
therefore left to their choice to practise them or not. 
They seem to think, that he who is responsible 
only to God, has no responsibility at all. 

Christian motive makes (so to speak) duties of the 
most ordinary actions of life, as done " unto the 
Lord and not unto man;" even of those which, done 
on worldly motives by worldly men, would have 
nothing virtuous in them. u Whether he eats or 
drinks, or whatsoever he does, he does all to the 
glory of God." 

A life cannot be said to be a Christian life that 
does not spring from Christian faith and Christian 
principle, any more than brute animals can- be called 
religious, though conforming to the design of their 
Maker, and acting suitably to the nature with which 
He has endowed them. No one would commend a 
machine for industry because it is in perpetual motion ; 
or a torrent for courage because it rushes impetuously 
along. 

It is not enough that the faith should be sound 
and the conduct right also, unless that conduct be 
made to arise out of that faith. It is not enough 



MISCELLANEOUS. 233 

that the inward works of a clock are well- constructed, 
and also the dial-plate and hands ; the one must act 
on the other ; the works must regulate the move- 
ments of the hands. 

The Christian serves the only Master who takes 
the effort alone for the deed. 

A son who loves his father so well as to be ready 
to die for him, is as truly loving a child as he who 
actually dies for his parent ; and he that is ready to 
forsake all for Christ, is as dear to Christ, as if he 
had actually forsaken all for Him. 

So far from any good works being intrinsically 
meritorious, there are none that can be even intrin- 
sically virtuous. To be acceptable in God's sight, 
they must be " the fruits of the Spirit," the fruits 
of the branches which grow on u the True Vine," 
without whom we can do nothing. The branch 
cannot boast itself independent of the vine, even 
Christ, on whose body we are engrafted through 
faith, and by whom we are enabled to bring forth 
fruit. 

The absurdity involved in the idea of being reli- 
gious by proxy — of having good works done for us 



234 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

— would be obvious, i£ men would remember that 
our divine Master can have no need of the services 
of his creatures. "Can a man/' asks Job, "be 
profitable unto God, as a man that is wise may be 
profitable unto himself? . ... or is it gain to him 
that thou makest thy ways perfect." The good 
works, therefore, which he requires of us must be 
entirely for our own benefit, and not for His, and 
designed as a training and exercise in order to our 
moral improvement. This distinction between works 
required for their own value to the requirer, and 
those which are required for the exercise of a learner 
is very obvious : for instance, if I offer a map for 
sale, it is nothing to any one whether I draw it 
myself, or get another to do it for me, provided the 
map is a good one ; but if a schoolmaster sets a boy 
to draw a map, he would punish him for getting 
another boy to do it for him ; because he values the 
map merely for the pupil's proficiency, as he could 
draw a better map himself, or buy it at a shop. 
Now as there can be no doubt that this latter case 
answers to ours in reference to our Divine Master, 
it must be a mere groundless fancy to think that 
another person can perform our duty for us, or that 
his good works, real or supposed, can be imputed to 
us, and considered as done by ourselves. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 235 

Though a man may go beyond what is required of 
some other men, no one can go beyond his own duty, 
It is plain, therefore, that no human virtue can have 
merit in God's sight, or any natural claim to reward. 

Some persons have fallen into perplexity and 
mistake on the subject of the rewards promised in 
Scripture, and the merit which some suppose good 
works to possess in God's sight, An illustration 
from the case of a school will serve to explain it. 
Suppose, for instance, some rich and liberal man 
should found a school for the children of his poor 
neighbours ; and suppose that besides building a 
school-house, and providing teachers and school- 
books, he should also provide prizes for such of the 
scholars as should behave w r ell, and make good pro- 
ficiency in their learning. Every one would under- 
stand that the children and their parents ought to be 
very grateful to such a patron for his kind bounty. 
And the children would easily be made to under- 
stand that they ought to shew their thankfulness by 
taking pains to profit by the advantages afforded 
them. And when it was said that these prizes were 
to be the reward of good behaviour, no one would be 
so stupid as to think that those who gained them 
could claim them as something earned by themselves, 
as a matter of right, and for w* hich they owed no 



236 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS, 

thanks to any one. All would understand that the 
proposing of the prizes was from the free bounty of 
the kind patron ; and that the proficiency in learning 
of the children thus rewarded was no benefit to him, 
but only to them ; and that it was entirely for their 
sakes that they were encouraged to take pains in 
learning. But they would fully calculate on re- 
ceiving the promised rewards in case of good conduct ; 
though not as what they had originally any claim 
to, but because it had been promised. For though 
the offer of the prize came from the patron's free 
bounty, the fulfilment of a promise once made is a 
matter of justice. 

And accordingly we read that God is not un- 
righteous (unjust) to forget our work or labour of 
love, not that He was originally bound in justice to 
reward any good works of ours, or that they can be 
a benefit to Him, but because He has graciously 
promised to be a " rewarder of them that diligently 
seek Him." The offer of a reward to any of his 
creatures is a free gift of his bounty, but we may 
trust to his justice to make good what He has said. 

If you could imagine the patron of a school such 
as we have been describing, to have supplied to the 
children not only a school-room, and teachers, and 
books, but also the eyes with which they read the 
books, and the ears with which they hear what is 



MISCELLANEOUS. 237 

said to them, and the brain by which they under- 
stand it, then the case would answer more closely 
to that of ourselves in reference to our Maker, " in 
whom we live, and move, and have our being." For 
He has supplied to us all our powers of mind and 
body, and He requires us, as He certainly has a 
full right to do, to employ them in devoting ourselves 
to His service. And He has held oat to us the 
promise of the prize of our high calling, the " crown 
of glory which the Lord the righteous Judge shall 
give at that day unto all that love his appearing." 

To this we could have no natural claim ; and 
though we may fully rely on His justice for the 
fulfilment of His promises, all that we can receive 
from Him is not the less a free and bountiful gift, 
since the promises themselves proceed from His 
bounty alone. 

Some Christians admire giving up something, un- 
der the notion of its being for Christ, when they are 
not called upon to give it up ; which is just as if a 
son were, without any reason in the world, to stab 
himself in order to shew his affection for his father. 
— This is a theatric kind of perfection, of which the 
Apostles knew nothing. 

Sufferings are only really admirable when God's 



238 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

providence calls us to undergo them in the path of 
duty. But men are apt to forget this, and to con- 
found together the thought of merit and of pain, be- 
cause they see the two things often joined together ; 
and when for no good reason at all, they inflict suf- 
fering on themselves, they think they are imitating 
Paul, forgetting that it was forced upon him. When 
our Lord says, u Let him take up his cross and fol- 
low me," He draws His metaphor from the Roman 
custom of condemning criminals to carry their own 
cross, and would teach His disciples to endure pa- 
tiently whatever sufferings may be laid on them in 
their Christian course. The precept is not, it should 
be observed, "Let him bear a cross" or "the cross," 
but his cross, z. e., that which is allotted to him. 
So also in the parable of a man going to build, and 
of a king about to make war, and who do not fail, if 
they are prudent to count the cost beforehand, we 
may observe that the cost to be computed is the un- 
avoidable expense of the undertaking. They do not 
regard the expenditure as a thing desirable in itself, 
and to be sought on its own account, or incurred 
unnecessarily ; but they consider how much it is 
requisite to sacrifice in order to accomplish the ob- 
ject. 

And the very strength of some of our Lord's ex- 
pressions, the hyperbolical and paradoxical form 



MISCELLANEOUS. 239 

which they often assume, serves, and was doubtless 
designed to serve, the purpose (in this, as in many 
other cases) of guarding us against mistaking his 
meaning. If He had bid us merely " hate " riches, 
and ease, and comfort, He might have been under- 
stood to mean that Christians would be the more ac- 
ceptable to Him for renouncing private property and 
exposing their bodies to the sufferings of cold and 
hunger, and scourging themselves with knotted 
cords according to the ' discipline 5 (as it is called) of 
some fanatic, or, like the Hindoos of this day, plung- 
ing into their flesh iron hooks, by which they are 
suspended and violently swung round. But when He 
says that a man must "hate his father and mother/ ' 
and all those to whom duty as well as affection most 
bind him, " yea, and his own life also/' we plainly 
see, since He evidently could not have been enjoining 
both unnatural cruelty and suicide, that He must 
have been inculcating the duty of being ready to sacri- 
fice our strongest attachments, when called on to do 
so in his cause, when regard for friends, or love of 
life, shall stand in the way of our devotedness to 
Him, — when, as it would often happen in the times 
of persecution, a man was obliged to make choice 
between the two, and renounce either the Gospel or 
the most valued good of this life and life itself. 
And fully did the Apostles act up to the spirit of 



240 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

their Lord's instructions, ready to " pluck out the 
eye," or u cut off the hand/ 7 if it "offend," but not 
otherwise ; ready each to bear his cross — his own 
cross — the burden of affliction which Providence 
might see fit should be laid on him ; but no other. 
We find them, in their Christian warfare, acting the 
part of good and faithful soldiers ; whose duty is to 
endure cheerfully hardship and toil, to brave wounds 
and death, when summoned to do so in the course of 
service, — to shrink from nothing that they are com- 
manded to do or to bear ; but never to expose them- 
selves wantonly to danger when not commanded, 
nor to inflict on themselves, merely in ostentation of 
their fortitude, any sufferings or privations that have 
no other object. 

The word "mortify," in our ordinary language, is 
commonly applied to any kind of suffering, simply 
as suffering ; in which sense, either scanty or un- 
pleasant food, or lying on a bed of stones, scourging, 
wearing of hair cloth, or any gratuitous endurance 
of pain, would be called mortification. But the 
word mortify originally signifies — as well as the two 
Greek words of which it is a translation — to "put to 
death." And it is invariably used by the Sacred 
"Writers (doubtless in allusion to the death of Christ 
for his people, whom He came to " save from their 



MISCELLANEOUS. 241 

sins") in the sense of suppressing and subduing sin- 
ful propensities, and bringing the body into subjec- 
tion to the Spirit. For instance, " Mortify your 
members which are upon the earth," " If ye through 
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall 
live." And in the same sense, " They that are 
Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections 
and lusts." 

That the " fastings " of which Paul speaks in the 
Second Epistle to the Corinthians (xi. 27) is an in- 
voluntary act, and not any kind of religious exer- 
cise, is plain from the context ; as he is manifestly 
enumerating, not his devotional practices, but his 
hardships and trials. His " fastings" are mentioned 
not along with prayers and meditations, but with 
"perils," and " stripes," and " stoning." And it is 
observable also, that the " watchings" which he like- 
wise mentions in the same place, have no reference 
to any sort of voluntary exercise. In our version, 
indeed, the word corresponds with that in our Lord's 
exhortation to " watch and pray ;" but in the origi- 
nal, quite different words are employed. In the ex- 
hortation, to watch {^pY(opeLv) is to be vigilant like 
a sentinel ; in Paul's description of his sufferings ; 
"watching" (ap^vwvla) means "privation of sleep," 
4 w ant of repose." And the same words are em- 
it 



242 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

ployed in the same manner, when he speaks in an- 
other place of being "in distresses, in stripes, in 
imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watehings, 
in fastings." 

It is evident that self-discipline, the bringing the 
body into subjection to the spirit, was not regarded 
by our Lord as the legitimate purpose of u fasting," 
(a notion which did not arise till several ages after ;) 
for in that point of view the disciples would have 
needed it while their Lord was with them as well as 
afterwards ; and thus, his reply to the reproachful 
enquhy why his disciples did not practise fasting, — 
u Can the children of the bride chamber fast while 
the bridegroom is with them?" — would have been 
nothing to the purpose. The next clause, " When 
the bridegroom is taken away, then shall they fast," 
contains no precept as to what his disciples were 
enjoined to do : only a prophecy of what would take 
place in the days when to mourn would be, — not 
indeed a thing commanded, but natural and suitable 
for Christ's disciples. Those days were the interval 
of desponding sorrow between his crucifixion and 
resurrection, and not, as some have thought, the life 
of hardship and privation and suffering which awaited 
them ; for these were a kind of trial which He pre- 
pared them not to mourn for, but to endure joyfully. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 243 

" Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you for 
righteousness sake .... rejoice in that day, and leap 
for joy." And well did the Apostles learn and 
practise, and inculcate on their converts, the lesson 
He had taught them. " My brethren, count it all 
jog when ye fall into divers temptations ;" that is, 
trials by persecution. "They rejoiced that they 
were counted worthy to suffer them for his sake." 
u l am filled/ ' says Paul, "with comfort; I am 
exceeding joyful in all our tribulation." 

That class of superstitious practices, painful suf- 
ferings, voluntarily undergone, — such as fasting, 
scourging, watching, filthy dress, or nakedness,—- 
springs, partly from the tendency to confound merit 
with pain, and that which is, in some cases, a mark 
of true piety, with true piety itself; and partly 
from such sufferings being regarded as necessary to 
atone for sin. We are naturally averse from the 
company of God; not only because we are unlike 
Him, but because we feel that we have offended 
Him, and may expect punishment. Conscience not 
only upbraids us for what we do amiss, but — to use 
the words of Bishop Butler, — " if not forcibly stopped 
naturally, and always, of course, goes on to antici- 
pate a higher and more effectual sentence, which 
shall hereafter second and affirm its own." Hence 

b 2 



244 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

we find that, among the very heathens, there was in 
wicked men often a keen sense of having deserved 
vengeance, and a vague solicitous looking round, as 
it were, of the mind in every direction, expecting 
that, from some point or other, vengeance would 
assuredly overtake them; and a starting at every 
unlucky accident, as if it were " a judgment for their 
sins." This notion of something being wanted to 
appease the wrath of heaven for past transgressions, 
as distinct from reformation for the time to come, is 
probably one great source of the immorality of the 
heathen religions. Men's thoughts were turned away 
from reformation for the future to atonement for the 
past. The anger of the higher powers, already 
incurred, was the foremost thought, and the means 
of averting that were the great object of anxiety. 
Now it is quite true (as we know from revelation), 
that, though the good and merciful God cannot thirst 
for revenge like the weakest of His creatures, yet 
there was something more required than mere repent- 
ance on our part ; not indeed to make us objects of 
God's mercy, for that we were when He gave his 
Son to die for us, but to make it wise and just for 
Him to treat us with favour as his dear children. 
But the mischief was, that men's minds fixed them- 
selves almost wholly on that something more ; and, 
pursued by a continual dread of punishment, they 



MISCELLANEOUS. 245 

sought, by self-inflicted penances and hardships, or 
costly offerings and sacrifices, to satisfy the divine 
justice. The issue was, that religion came to wear 
the shape of a plan for tolerating vice at the expense 
of paying certain fines, and suffering certain penal- 
ties ; and this will be, in the end, the shape of any 
religion which regards sin as something still to be 
atoned for by man himself, in the practice of rites 
different from ordinary right conduct. Christianity 
met the difficulty by teaching us that an atonement 
has been made ; but an atonement in making which 
we have no share. It tells us that sin (considered 
as an obstacle to full pardon on repentance), has 
been so for ever put away, as that nothing remains 
for us to do, but to accept the offer of eternal life by 
turning to God ; and knowing now that our " labour 
is not in vain in the Lord," set ourselves, with his 
help, to that practice of virtue which is, and must 
be at all times our duty, and without which we 
M shall never see God." And the only pain God 
requires us to undergo, not as an atonement for sin, 
but as a natural consequence of it, is, the pain and 
toil which a man has to undergo in reforming his 
life, a pain and toil which will always be the greater 
the more sinful his life has been, and the longer he 
has continued in sin. Hence it leads us to regard 
the sufferings of this mortal life, not as vengeance 



246 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

taken on our sins, but as fatherly corrections, and a 
painful discipline necessary for our improvement; 
in which -" God dealeth with us as with children; for 
what son is he whom his father chasteneth not ?" 

Christian self-denial consists, not in volunteering 
self-torture, but in u denying ungodliness and worldly 
lusts/' and in "living" (not at this or that particular 
season, but always) " soberly, righteously and godly 
in this present life." For he who is a Christian at 
all must be one constantly ; because he is, as such, 
a living stone of the temple of the Holy Ghost, and 
should therefore live — not on this day or that, but 
every day — as becomes those who are preparing for 
the coming of Him u who shall change our vile body, 
that it may be made like unto his glorious body, 
according to the mighty working whereby He is 
able to subdue all things unto himself," and who, 
" having this hope," strive to "purify themselves, 
even as He is pure." 

But though this is plainly the teaching of Christ 
and his Apostles, yet it is well known how much, 
and how soon, Christians of later ages perverted 
their teaching, and departed from their example. 
Early introduced, and widely spread, and hard to be 
eradicated, and easily revived, is the notion of a 
man's becoming, by a presumptuous M will- worship," 



MISCELLANEOUS. 247 

by performance of supposed services that have not 
been enjoined — a sort of saviour to himself; or of 
atoning, himself, for his own, and even for his neigh- 
bours' sins. And the introduction of such notions 
and practices into the Gospel, contrary to its original 
and proper character, shews, more plainly even than 
the instances of the Pagan religions, how suitable 
to the " natural man " is this kind of will- worship. 
It appears everywhere — in corrupted Christianity, 
and in all the forms of heathenism in ancient and in 
modern times. The notion, evidently, is not derived 
either from Christianity as such, or from Maho- 
metanism, or from Paganism, or from any particular 
form of Paganism ; but from some tendency in human 
nature itself. 

Since the two, seemingly most opposite, tendencies, 
a desire for temporal victory, glory, wealth, and en- 
joyment ; and the other much more strange tendency, 
a craving for self-torture, are natural to man ; since 
the two apparently most opposite desires — that for 
worldly success, complete self-indulgence, and free- 
dom from moral restraint ; and that for ascetic morti- 
fication, are found to exist in human nature; one 
might expect that any one teaching a religion either 
invented or modified by man, would have been likely 
to accommodate himself to these dispositions of the 
human mind. A superstitious enthusiast or a design- 



248 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

ing impostor, . would have led his zealous followers 
to expect temporal success as a mark of diviue favour 
(as was done by Mahomet, who was probably a mix- 
ture of the two characters) ; and allowed to them a 
relaxation of moral obligation ; or he would have 
recommended self-inflicted sufferings as a laudable 
service of God, or most likely combined both ; pro- 
mising them, along with the consolations of piety, 
the free gratification of their natural desires ; by 
permitting them to compensate, by austerities at 
particular seasons, for habitual self-indulgence at 
other times. Jesus, on the contrary, does neither. 
He laboured to repress all expectations of worldly 
prosperity, and held forth the prospect of persecu- 
tions and hardships. He allows of no exemption 
from moral duty, no shrinking from dangers and 
sufferings to be encountered in his cause ; no refusal 
to bear the cross that may be allotted to each ; and 
yet never enjoins or encourages any self-inflicted 
pain, or needless exposure to danger. His religion, 
therefore, as taught by Himself, differs in a most 
important point from any that ever was devised by 
men ; or mixed, and modified, and corrupted with 
human inventions. And this is one of the proofs 
open to any man of plain common sense, which may 
furnish an answer to the question, "Was it from 
heaven, or of men ?" 



MISCELLANEOUS. 249 

The danger is not only so great, but likewise so 
palpable, of giving way to intemperance or to 
luxurious self-indulgence, that many are apt to dis- 
believe or overlook all danger on the side of asceti- 
cism, and consider that as being, at the worst, no 
more than a harmless error, leading to no evil beyond 
the unnecessary bodily suffering undergone ; as some- 
thing superfluous, but no wise mischievous. But, 
in truth, whatever is practised and admired as a 
Christian duty, when it is none, is likely to be worse 
than useless. While the practice of any truly Chris- 
tian virtue tends to cherish every other Christian 
virtue, purifying and elevating the moral taste, and 
Christianizing the whole character, because the 
genuine " fruits of the spirit" all come from the same 
root ; the practice, on the contrary, of any spurious 
imitation of virtue, is more likely to be substituted 
for general Christian morality than to prove a help 
towards it ; and thus gradually to debase, instead of 
exalting the character. Every superstition tends, as 
far as it goes, to divert religious sentiments into a 
wrong channel. 

True Christian sanctity is not the sanctity which 
shews itself in self-inflicted mortification or outward 
signs of humility, or in the pomp and splendour of 
ceremonies. It is that sanctity which consists in 



250 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

the sober and consistent practice of Christian morals 
— that real virtue which is u comely, honest, and of 
good report/' always and everywhere — that " mo- 
deration " which uses this world without abusing It," 
which is ready to sacrifice all when duty requires 
it ; but is not afraid temperately to enjoy what God 
gives richly, — that sanctity which consists in walk- 
ing "righteously, soberly, and godly in this pre- 
sent world," and which, borrowing no help from 
enthusiasm, or pride, or vanity, relies, in the meek- 
ness of a rational and serious faith, on the unseen 
help of God's grace. Such is Christian sanctity, 
and such a sanctity is strong and convincing evidence 
of the divine origin of that faith from which it 
springs. 

There are some who seem to think that in moral 
questions, as well as in doctrinal questions, their 
judgment is infallibly right ; and that though, in 
practice, they are liable to go wrong, this can only 
be when they offend against the dictates of their own 
conscience. This is to claim a great superiority over 
the Apostle Paul, and to reverse his procedure. He 
did not set up his own conscience as an infallible 
standard of right and wrong; for he says, u I judge 
not mine own self; for I know nothing by (against) 
myself" (that is, I am not conscious of any wrong) ; 



MISCELLANEOUS. 251 

" yet am I not hereby justified : but lie that judgeth 
me is the Lord." 

The meritorious sacrifice of Christ is the only 
foundation of the Christian's hope, and the aid of 
His Spirit, the only support of the Christian's virtue. 

What is it of which the devout communicants are 
really partakers in the sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
per? Surely, of the Spirit of Christ. The bread 
and wine, not only are merely a sign, but they are 
a sign of a sign; that is, they represent our Lord's 
flesh and blood, and his flesh and blood represent 
the benefits procured by his death. To eat and 
drink the symbols, represents our feasting on the 
sacrifices — our being made sharers of those benefits. 
" It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profit- 
eth nothing." And as it is the soul or spirit of a 
man that animates (quickeneth) his body, which 
would otherwise be lifeless ; so Christians who are 
themselves the figurative body of Christ are quick- 
ened — receive life and vigour, " strength and re- 
freshment" — from the Spirit of Christ which dwell- 
eth in them ; — " the last Adam was made a quick- 
ening Spirit" 

We must " watch " as if all depended on our own 



252 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

vigilance ; we must " pray " as if nothing depended 
on it. 

The natural, hearty, fervent prayer of a child 
cannot but be childish; so that to teach children 
prayers they cannot understand, while neglecting to 
teach them other prayers suitable to their age, is to 
supply them with a promise of strong meat, which 
they may hereafter be able to bear, while withhold- 
ing the necessary immediate nourishment of milk. 

The Apostle sets Love above Faith and Hope, 
not merely as the greatest of the three, but as in- 
cluding the other two ; because it " hopeth all things 
and believeth all things. 5 f 

The Christian must be prepared to believe all that 
his divine Master has taught, — to hope all that He 
has promised, — and to endure and do all that He has 
commanded. 

He who taught us by precept to " seek first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness/ ' has taught 
us, in His own form of prayer, before we ask for 
" our daily bread," to pray that His kingdom may 
come," and His " will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven." 



MISCELLANEOUS. 253 

i 

The true Christian is most emphatically and pre- 
eminently public- spirited. " None of us," says the 
Apostle Paul, "liveth unto himself." And he who 
is the most sedulously occupied in working out on 
Gospel principles his own salvation, will always be 
found the most devotedly active in promoting the 
welfare of his brethren. 

When praying that God's servants may be hurt 
by no persecutions," let us not forget to pray for the 
still more important blessing of being preserved from 
hurting others by persecution. 

Most heretics are made so by the orthodox. 

Heresies are indefinitely multiplied by injudicious 
controversy — like the prolific heads of the fabulous 
hydra, by the unskilful attempt to destroy the first. 

Many a one has been led, by an unjust and inju- 
dicious charge of heresy, to suppose that to be a 
distinct mode of faith which, in fact, is rather a de- 
ficiency of faith, and has thus been partly alarmed, 
partly provoked, and partly flattered into embody- 
ing, maintaining and propagating, as a peculiar sys- 
tem, what is merely the result of his own slight and 
inaccurate acquaintance with Scripture. 



254 THOUGHTS AXD APOPHTHEGMS. 






Many heresies have gone out of themselves, as 
soon as men have ceased to blow them. Great is 
the noise when every one is crying " Silence I" 

Some men are very zealous for the reformation of 
a religion, while indifferent to the religion itself that 
is reformed. 

The strongest term of detestation that can be 
applied to a man — the term " miscreant'' affords, in 
its etymology (misbeliever), a curious instance of 
the fact, that our hostility against the rejection of 
our religion by infidelity is greater than against the 
disgracing of it by immorality. 

The irreligious, or profligate, or worldly-minded 
professor of religion is more chargeable with impiety 
than the unbeliever, who is, at any rate, not living 
in the habitual defiance of a God and Saviour whom 
he acknowledges. If two men receive each a letter 
from his father, and one of them, on very insuffi- 
cient grounds, reject it as a forgery, he is not surely 
more undutiful than the other who, recognizing it as 
a genuine letter from his father, puts it away, and 
utterly disregards all the injunctions it contains. 

There is no presumption in the idea of a Christian 






MISCELLANEOUS. 255 

in the present day becoming as perfect as one of the 
apostles ; the presumption lies in his being content 
to remain inferior. 

In every Christian duty, improvement is a good 
sign only when it is a promising sign. 

If no more is required of a Christian than to do 
his utmost, so no less is required of him* 

He who is not the better for his religious know- 
ledge, will assuredly be the worse for it. 

Confident trust in unimproved spiritual privileges 
will avail to secure their advantages as little as will 
a confidence in the possession of once fertile land, 
whose tillage is neglected, avail to make it a source 
of wealth. 

As a frightfully large proportion of the world are, 
undeniably, practical Antinomians, living as if they 
did not expect to be hereafter accountable for their 
conduct, the fact that so very few of them are found 
to adopt the Antinomian theory, furnishes the most 
powerful testimony against the truth of that hypo- 
thesis. 



256 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

The fruits of the Spirit is the only test of being 
led by the Spirit, 

As the behaviour of a family will be influenced 
by the character of the master of the house, so the 
religion of men will be influenced by the character 
which they suppose to be that of the Being whom 
they worship. Thus " he that hath hope in Jesus 
purifieth himself even as He is pure." 

Many a one trusts to the mercy of God, who 
has never thought seriously of the conditions of that 
mercy. 

When men talk of preparing for death, they 
mean preparing for the next life. 

Those who have doubted of the life to come, or 
studied to keep the consideration out of sight, are 
generally found to believe it the most firmly at the 
awful moment when they would be most glad to dis- 
believe it ; and then to think most of it, when the 
thought is most intolerable. 



A strong sense of the uncertainty and shortness 
of life, tends to make a man either a thorough-going 
voluptuary, or a thorough- going Christian. 






MISCELLANEOUS. 257 

For the dying man, the death-bed is the best time 
for seeking to make his peace with God ; simply 
because he has no other : for any one else, it is the 
very worst 

He who is a sincere Christian never can die 
suddenly ; and he who lives otherwise, necessarily 
must 

It is very difficult for those advanced in life, who 
have hitherto been deaf to their Saviour's call, not 
merely to receive a new impression for the moment, 
but to make a total change in all their habits, 
thoughts and feelings ; but it will be still more dif- 
ficult every moment they delay it; and in that 
change is their only hope. Let not such then " grieve 
any longer, the Holy Spirit," who alone can enable 
any to surmount the difficulty; for "with God all 
things are possible.' 7 Let them consider their Lord 
as addressing to them the question, " Why stand ye 
here all the day idle ?" They cannot indeed answer, 
" Because no man hath hired us ;" for they have 
been summoned to go and labour in the vineyard, 
and have refused : but they can answer by throwing 
themselves immediately on his mercy, and with deep 
repentance for their past neglect of Him, accepting, 
though late, the gracious offers they have hitherto 



258 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

disregarded ; striving the more earnestly before "the 
door is shut," to gain admittance to the presence of 
Him who will "abundantly pardon" those that return 
unto Him. 

Though it may never be too late to repent, it is 
always too late to think of deferring repentance. . 

False security in the great mass of mankind, 
arises not from a too confident expectation of the 
glories of a better world, but from thinking too little 
of any world but this ; not from their insensibility 
to the danger of falling from a state of grace, but 
to that of never striving to be in such a state. 

To say " we are not expected to be saints," is to 
forget that the Gospel promises are limited to those 
who live " as becometh saints." 

Instead of inquiring whether there is any harm 
in this or that, we should rather ask, whether it 
becomes the redeemed of Christ and the heirs of 
immortality. 

The doctrine of man's immortality, when once 
the mind can be brought to dwell intently on the 
subject, is certainly the most interesting and the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 259 

most important that can be presented to him. Other 
objects may, and often do, occupy more of our atten- 
tion, and take a stronger hold of our feelings ; but 
that, in real importance, all those objects are com- 
paratively trifles, no one can doubt. Other matters 
of contemplation, again, may be, in themselves, not 
lass awful, stupendous, and wonderful • but none of 
these can so intimately concern ourselves. Admirable 
as is the whole of God's creation, no other of his 
works can be so interesting to man, as man himself ; 
sublime as is the idea of the eternal Creator Himself, 
our own eternal existence after death is an idea 
calculated to strike us with still more overpowering 
emotions. That man, feeble and short-lived as he 
appears on earth, is destined by his Maker to live 
for ever — that ages hence, when we and our remotest 
posterity shall have been long forgotten on earth — 
and countless ages yet beyond, when this earth 
itself, and perhaps a long succession of other worlds, 
shall have come to an end — we shall still be living ; 
still sensible of pleasure or pain, to a greater degree 
perhaps than our present nature admits of, and still 
having no shorter space of existence before us than 
at first. These are thoughts which overwhelm the 
imagination the more, the longer it dwells upon 
them. The understanding cannot adequately em- 
brace the truths it is compelled to acknowledge; 

s 2 



260 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

and when, after intently gazing for some time on 
this vast prospect, we turn aside to contemplate the 
various courses of earthly events and transactions, 
which seem like rivulets trickling into the boundless 
ocean of eternity, we are struck with a sense of the 
infinite insignificance of all the objects around us 
that have a reference to our present state alone; 
while every, the most minute, circumstance that may 
concern the future life, like a seed from which some 
mighty tree is to spring, rises into immeasurable 
importance, as the awful reflection occurs that per- 
haps something which is taking place at this very 
moment, may contribute to fix our final destiny. 
There is no one truth, in short, the conviction of 
which tends to produce so total a change in our 
estimate of all things. 

And this doctrine, so sublime in contemplation, 
so important in practice, is peculiar to the Gospel. 
There it was first proposed to us ; by it " life and 
immortality were brought to light :" proposed, not 
as a matter of curious speculation and interesting 
conjecture, but of general and well-grounded, and 
practical belief ; brought to light, not as an ingenious 
and pleasing theory, but as an established truth ; 
displayed to us, not as a wandering meteor that 
serves but to astonish and amuse us, but as the 
great luminary which is destined to brighten our 



MISCELLANEOUS. 261 

prospects, and to direct our steps. " Jesus Christ 
brought life and immortality to light, through the 
Gospel." 

The Christian's hope, as founded on the promises 
contained in the Gospel, is the resurrection of the 
body, and that hope depends not on the resurrection 
of the very same particles of matter, — an idea which 
has needlessly exposed it to cavils from infidels to 
which neither reason nor revelation afford means of 
replying. For, as during this life all the particles 
of a man's body are undergoing a perpetual and 
rapid change, that which constitutes it, his body, is 
not the identity of the materials, but their union 
with the same soul, and performance of similar 
functions. And that there should be such a change 
in the raised body, is no more inconsistent with the 
promise made to the Christians, than it would be 
if a kind benefactor, who had engaged to rebuild for 
a poor man his house that had been destroyed, em- 
ployed in the erection other and different materials ; 
it would suffice that he had, as before, a house; 
and one that was suitable for all the same purposes. 

It seems not improbable that the change which 
shall take place in the body at the resurrection of 
man from the dead, may be itself the appointed 
means for bringing about a change in the powers 



262 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

and tendencies of the mind. It is plain that the 
mind greatly depends on the body as its instrument ; 
and on the several members of the body depend the 
exercise of several distinct powers of the mind ; so 
that the loss or imperfection of any one particular 
organ, — of the eye for instance, or of the ear, — will 
shut out one particular kind of knowledge and of 
thought from the mind ; — that of colours, for in- 
stance, — or that of sounds. It is quite possible, 
therefore, that our minds may at this moment 
actually possess faculties which have never been 
exercised, and of which we have no notion what- 
ever ; which have lain inactive, unperceived, and 
undeveloped, for want of such a structure of bodily 
organs as is necessary to call them forth, and give 
play to them. A familiar instance of this kind, is 
the case of a man born blind ; whose mind or spiri- 
tual part is as perfect in itself as another man's ; his 
mind is as capable even of receiving impressions of 
visible objects by the eyes, as if the eyes themselves 
(the bodily part) were perfect ; for it is plainly not 
the eyes that see, but the mind by means of the eyes ; 
yet through this imperfection one whole class of 
ideas, — all those of objects of sight, — are completely 
wanting in such a man. Nor could he ever even 
find out his imperfection, if he were not told of it. 
He learns from others that there is such a thing as 



MISCELLANEOUS. 263 

seeing, and as light and colours, though he cannot 
comprehend what they are. And if you could sup- 
pose such a case as blind persons brought up from 
childhood without ever being taught that others pos- 
sessed a sense more than themselves, they would 
never suspect anything at all on the subject ; should 
they then obtain sight, they would be astonished at 
discovering that they had all along been in posses- 
sion, as far as the mind is concerned, of a faculty 
which they had had no opportunity to exercise, and 
of whose very existence they had never dreamed, — 
the faculty of perceiving the visible objects presented 
to the mind by the eye. 

In the expressions and thoughts of most persons 
on the subject of a future state, it seems to be sup- 
posed and implied, though not expressly stated, that 
the heavenly life will be one of inactivity, and per- 
fectly stationary, — that there will be nothing to be 
done, nothing to be learnt, no advances to be made, 
nothing to be hoped for, nothing to look forward to, 
except a continuance in the same state. Now this 
is not an alluring view to minds constituted as ours 
are. The ideas of change, hope, progress, improve- 
ment, acquirement, action, are so intimately connected 
with all our conceptions of happiness, — so interwoven 
with the very thought of all enjoyment, — that it is 



264 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

next to impossible for us to separate them, and to 
contemplate a state from which they are excluded, 
without an idea of tediousness and wearisomeness 
forcing itself upon them. Even with the most 
perfect assent of the understanding to the assertion 
that it will be exquisitely happy, such a state can 
never be interesting to our feelings as they now are, 
involving as it does a change of our nature so total 
as to reverse every point in it. To suppose this total 
difference between the true Christian's life on earth, 
and the Christian's life in heaven, is to suppose that 
a tree which we had been carefully cultivating while 
a sapling, and assiduously rearing to maturity, was 
destined, immediately on attaining maturity, to be- 
come another tree of a totally different kind — a plant 
of some distinct species. Now the very idea of a 
change so total as to reverse every point in our 
nature, whether good or bad, must necessarily take 
away our interest in the reward promised, because 
no one can bring himself to feel (though he may to 
believe) that it is he himself the very person he now 
is, that will obtain that reward. To illustrate this 
last remark more fully : the ancient heathens had 
many fables of men being transformed into brutes of 
different kinds, by the power of their gods ; now I 
cannot think that any one of them who firmly be- 
lieved in such occurrences, if he imagined to himself 



MISCELLANEOUS, 265 

the case of his being thus changed into an animal of 
some other species, could take any lively interest in 
the thought of what should then befal him. 

But I can see nothing either in reason or Scripture, 
to compel us to believe that there is any further 
change to be expected than is necessary to qualify 
the faithful for a state, where what is evil will 
be taken away ; what is imperfect, made complete ; 
and what is good, extended and exalted. Surely, 
this supposed reversing of the dispositions, and whole 
constitution of the human character, are utterly 
inconsistent with those statements of Scripture which 
represent this life, as not only a state of trial, but 
of preparation also, for a better world. For if the 
condition into which the Christian is required to 
bring himself in this life, bear no degree of resem- 
blance to that which is promised in the next ; surely 
there could be nothing of preparation in the case. 
But that there is a resemblance, is expressly asserted 
in Scripture; a resemblance between heaven and 
everything most pure and virtuous, noblest and 
greatest in the true sense, — most sublimely good 
and happy,— most heavenly, in short — on earth; 
and a resemblance also between Christ's sincere 
followers and Himself, " who shall change our vile 
bodies, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious 
body, according to the mighty working whereby He 



266 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." 
Thus when the apostle John exhorts his hearers to 
imitate the example of Jesus, and to become as like 
Him as possible, he does so, on the very ground, 
that hereafter they may hope for a greater degree of 
resemblance to Him. "We know not what we shall 
be ; but we know that when He shall appear, we 
shall be like unto Him ; for we shall see Him as 
He is ; and every man that hath this hope in Him, 
purifieth himself even as He is pure." Now, if the 
Christian be called upon in this life to employ him- 
self actively in promoting God's glory, and the 
happiness of his brethren, if he be encouraged, also, 
to keep continually advancing in knowledge and in 
goodness ; to improve in acquaintance with the 
written Word of God, to grow in grace and in the 
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ; is it likely 
that all this advancement should be totally stopped, 
that all this activity should be quenched, that all 
these dispositions should be changed — in a glorified 
state ? And if the wishes and inclinations of the 
blest are still to remain, in these respects, similar to 
what they are now, of course the life they are to 
lead (since it cannot be supposed their wishes will 
be vain, — their desires wngratified) must be of a 
corresponding nature. And the hope that it will be 
so, is a hope as well founded, as it is cheering and 






MISCELLANEOUS. 267 

delightful. To be ever advancing nearer and nearer 
to the nature of our Great Master, though we can 
never reach it, — to gaze ever closer and closer on 
those glorious and lovely qualities, of which we can 
never understand the full perfection, — to advance 
ever further into the inexhaustible treasury of the 
knowledge of God's mighty works, seems one of the 
sublimest and most interesting, and most encourag- 
ing, and, at the same time, one of the most rational 
expectations that a zealous Christian can form re- 
specting the blissful state prepared for him. 

I see no reason why those who have been dearest 
friends on earth, should not, when admitted to the 
future happy state, continue to be so, with full 
knowledge and recollection of their former friend- 
ship. If a man is still to continue (as there is every 
reason to suppose) a social being, and capable of 
friendship, it seems contrary to all probability that 
he should cast off or forget his former friends, who 
are partakers with him of the like exaltation. He 
will indeed be greatly changed from what he was on 
earth, and unfitted perhaps for friendship with such 
a being as one of us is now ; but his friend will have 
undergone, by supposition, a corresponding change. 
And, as we have seen, those who have been 
loving playfellows in childhood, grow up, if they 



268 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

grow up with good, and with like dispositions, into 
still closer friendship in riper years, so also it is 
probable that when this our state of childhood shall 
be perfected, in the maturity of a better world, the 
like attachment will continue between those com- 
panions who have trod together the Christian path 
to glory, and have " taken sweet counsel together, 
and walked in the house of God as friends." A 
change to indifference towards those who have fixed 
their hearts on the same objects with ourselves during 
this earthly pilgrimage, and have given and received 
mutual aid during their course, is a change as little, 
I trust, to be expected as it is to be desired. It 
certainly is not such a change as the Scriptures teach 
us to prepare for. 

And a belief that under such circumstances our 
earthly attachments will remain, is as beneficial as 
it is reasonable. It is likely very greatly to influence 
our choice of friends, which surely is no small matter. 
A sincere Christian would not indeed be, at any 
rate, utterly careless whether those were sincere 
Christians also with whom he connected himself: 
but his care is likely to be much greater, if he hopes 
that, provided he shall have selected such as ai# 
treading the same path, and if he shall have studied 
to promote their eternal welfare, he shall meet again, 
never to part more, those to whom his heart is most 



MISCELLANEOUS. 269 

engaged here below. The hope also of rejoining in 
a better state the friend whom he sees advancing 
toward that state, is an additional spnr to his own 
virtuous exertions. Everything which can make 
heaven appear more desirable, is a help towards his 
progress in Christian excellence ; and as one of the 
greatest of earthly enjoyments to the best and most 
exalted Christian is to witness the happiness of a 
friend, so, one of the brightest of his hopes will be, 
that of exulting in the most perfect happiness of 
those most dear to him. As for the grief which a 
man may be supposed to feel for the loss — the total 
and final loss — of some who may have been dear to 
him on earth, as well as of vast multitudes, I fear, 
of his fellow-creatures, I have only this to remark, 
— that a wise and good man in this life, though he 
never ceases to use his endeavours to reclaim the 
wicked and to diminish every kind of evil and suffer- 
ing ; yet in cases where it is clear that no good can 
be done by him, strives as far as possible (though 
often without much success) to withdraw his thoughts 
from evil which he cannot lessen, but which still, 
in spite of his efforts, will often cloud his mind. We 
cannot at pleasure draw off our thoughts entirely 
from painful subjects which it is in vain to meditate 
about. The power to do this completely, when we 
will, would be a great increase of happiness ; and 



270 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

this power therefore it is reasonable to suppose the 
blest will possess in the world to come ; that they 
will occupy their minds entirely with the thought 
of things agreeable, and in which their exertions can 
be of service ; and will be able, by an effort of the 
will, completely to banish and exclude every idea 
that might alloy their happiness. 

The appearances of angels served to prepare men's 
minds, in some degree, for the doctrine of a resur- 
rection, and to aid their conception of a new and 
exalted state of existence in another world. And 
this connexion between the appearances of angels 
and the doctrine of a resurrection is confirmed by the 
fact that the Sadducees who denied the one, denied 
the other also. " For the Sadducees say there is no 
resurrection, neither angel nor spirit, but the Phari- 
sees confess both." There were exhibited to the 
senses of men created beings in many respects like 
men, in others more refined and elevated ; having a 
human form and speech, and something of human 
affections, but without the grosser attributes of mor- 
tals. This served to form and to keep up the idea, not 
only that man is not the highest of God's creatures, 
but moreover that there is a state of existence, ex- 
alted indeed and glorified beyond that in which we 
now are, yet not so utterly remote from our present 



MISCELLANEOUS. 271 

condition but that we may conceive something re- 
sembling it to be reserved for us hereafter, and may 
be led to aspirations after something higher and 
better than man's life on earth, and which yet shall 
not be inconsistent with our consciousness of personal 
identity, with our being, and feeling ourselves to 
be, the same individuals. The angels, in short, in 
their visits to this world of ours, gave man a glimpse 
of a higher and better world. They were specimens, 
so to speak, of what is to be found in the heavenly 
Canaan, our Land of Promise, answering to those 
fruits which the spies, sent by Moses into Canaan, 
brought to the Israelites in the dreary and barren 
wilderness, in order to convince them of the good- 
ness of "that pleasant land," and to encourage them 
to enter into it. 

It is worth while to remark that, in all the cases 
recorded of angels bringing messages from heaven, 
a sufficient test was provided to secure the persons 
concerned from being misled by any delusions of ima- 
gination, and to assure them sufficiently of its being 
a real communication from heaven that they had 
received. The finding of a babe lying in the manger 
at the inn, as the shepherds had been told by the 
angel, saying, "this shall be the sign unto you," 
proved clearly that they had not been dreaming, or 



272 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS, 

deluded by any fancy. Again, the absence of the 
body of Jesus from the sepulchre, and afterwards 
his own appearance to the disciples, attested the 
truth of the announcement of his resurrection, And 
again, the actual release of the Apostles from prison 
was of course a proof perfectly decisive that there 
was no delusion. And, as Dr. Paley has justly re- 
marked, either Cornelius's vision, or Peter's — taking 
each separately — might, conceivably, have been a 
delusion : taking the two conjointly and connected, 
as they were, with each other, there could be no 
doubt of the reality of either. 

The members of Christ's Church, as it now exists, 
must not suppose that they are less favoured than 
God's people were formerly, on account of their not 
having, like those, sensible communications from 
heaven by thunderings, and supernatural flames, and 
voices, and visits of angels. We who have a religion 
less addressed to the senses, and more spiritual, than 
the earlier dispensations, have, no less than God's 
people of old, a promise of divine presence, and aid, 
and guidance. Our divine Master is present with us 
by his Spirit. He visits us, in the thoughts that 
arise in our hearts, — in the occurrences that happen 
around us. Let any one suppose the case of an 
angelic vision presenting itself to his bodily senses. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 273 

Let him imagine himself visited by a superhuman 
being, clad in celestial light, and announcing himself 
as a messenger from heaven. And suppose him to 
remind him that the Saviour who died on the cross 
for his redemption, is risen from the dead, and is 
gone to prepare a place for him in the mansions of 
eternal bliss ; but that he will forfeit this rich inhe- 
ritance, and lose all that He has done for him, unless 
he gives proof of his love to Him by keeping His 
commandments ; by striving to be led by His Spirit 
into an imitation of Him. The angel also admo- 
nishes him perhaps respecting some known sin in 
which he is indulging, or some known duty he is 
habitually neglecting. Or the heavenly messenger 
points out to him, how little he practises self-exami- 
nation, or how much he is devoted to the cares and 
pleasures of this life, which is so soon to come to 
an end ; and how little, in comparison, his thoughts 
dwell on the life beyond the grave, and the account 
he will have to render at the last day, of all that he 
shall have done, or left undone, — of all the advan- 
tages he shall have used, or wasted — among the rest, 
of the very warnings the angel is addressing to him. 
Now imagine such a resplendent vision, and such 
a message, were actually brought before his senses. 
He would surely be awe-struck ; he would be roused 
from carelessness ; he would be filled with earnest 



274 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 






good resolutions to profit by the heavenly warning, 
by devoting himself henceforth more than ever to 
the care of his eternal salvation. And now, how 
does the case actually stand? Everything that I 
have been supposing the angel to have said to him, 
he already knows as it is. Why not then act, at 
once, as if he had received this angelic message ? 

Instead of indulging in any vain cravings after a 
more complete system of divine guidance than we 
have any reason for expecting, for we are required 
to walk by faith and not by sight, it is for us to 
make the most of the advantages we do possess, by 
studying prayerfully the Holy Scriptures which are 
able to make us wise unto salvation, and (knowing 
that " every good and perfect gift is from above, and 
eometh down from the Father of lights "), by listen- 
ing to and following as a voice from heaven — as an 
angel of the Lord — every suggestion that would lead 
us to Him — every warning that would keep us in 
His paths. 

Ask yourself, each one who sincerely desires 
divine help and guidance, whether you may not, 
like some holy men of old, have u received angels 
unawares ;" whether you may not have been visited, 
though not by a divine messenger in bodily shape, 
yet by some thought or feeling which in some hour 
of trial, has led you — or would have led you — out 



MISCELLANEOUS. 275 

of evil company, or some other such danger ; even 
as the angels led Lot out of the city doomed to de- 
struction, and would have saved his sons-in-law, had 
they not refused the guidance. May not some tem- 
poral loss, or mortification, or alarm, have occurred 
opportunely to shake off from you the chain of over- 
devotedness to worldly objects, or to rouse you from 
indolent carelessness, like the angel which visited 
Peter in the prison, bidding him arise and gird him- 
self, and causing his fetters to fall off, and the prison 
gates to open ? Or may not the ordinary course of 
events — that is, of God's providence, which makes 
" all things work together for good to them that love 
Him" — have sometimes introduced you to somei)ook, 
or some teacher, fitted to supply to you just the 
instruction, or the consolation, you were most in 
need of ; even as the angel brought Cornelius to the 
knowledge of Peter, who should " tell him what he 
ought to do?" In these and similar cases, you may 
have been receiving angelic visits unawares ; since 
every person or thing through which God communi- 
cates with us, is, so far, his angel or messenger. 

It is remarkable that there are, in the New Testa- 
ment, much more frequent notices of evil than of 
good angels. The cause of this may probably have 
been, that whatever good offices men may receive 

t 2 



276 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

from these latter, are never to be sought from them. 
And it is likely therefore that their existence and 
agency are the less frequently mentioned, for fear 
men should be led into the error of false worship. 
On the other hand, the dangers to which any one 
may be exposed from evil spirits, it was right to 
give warning of, and frequently to remind men to 
be on their guard against them. But though in the 
Old Testament the allusions to such beings are much 
less frequent than in the New, yet there is no such 
entire omission of the subject as a hasty reader 
might be led to suppose. For the gods worshipped 
by the ancient heathen were believed by the Jews, 
and by the early Christians also, to be really existing 
evil-demons. For we find the Jews speaking, for in- 
stance, of " Beelzebub as the Prince of the demons;" 
and we know that Beelzebub was the Philistine god 
worshipped at Ekron. (2 Kings i. 2 ; See also 2 
Chron. xi. 15; Levit. xvii. 7, and Psalm cvi. 37.) 
And we find the Apostle Paul saying (1 Cor. x. 19, 
20), " the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they 
sacrifice unto demons, and not unto God." Demons, 
it is to be observed, is the term used in the original, 
which our translators have in several places (unfor- 
tunately) translated "devils;' 7 not recollecting that 
devil is the proper name of an individual, and accord- 
ingly is never used by the Sacred Writers in the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 277 

plural number, as applied to evil- spirits, whom they 
designate by the terms "unclean spirits " and "de- 
mons." And this title, "demons," is the very one 
given by the Pagans themselves to the objects of 
their worship. Thus, though to the Jews these 
beings were an abomination, and the worship of 
them regarded as impious, while the Pagans built 
temples and offered sacrifices and prayers to them, 
their real existence was admitted by both. And 
therefore, whether this belief was a delusion or 
well-grounded, it was therefore quite necessary that 
Jesus and his Apostles should make some mention 
of beings which were, in fact, the very gods the 
heathen intended to worship, for the purpose of 
putting men on their guard against either being 
seduced into the worship of them ; and also for the 
purpose of dispelling any false terrors, and of giving 
assurance of Christ's effectual protection, and final 
triumph over these adversaries. Accordingly, we 
find frequent mention made by the Sacred Writers 
of evil angels or demons, and from various allusions 
we gather that these evil spirits are " angels who 
kept not their first estate," that is, who by disobe- 
dience and rebellion against God, fell from the con- 
dition (perhaps, a state of trial, such as we are in 
now) in which they had once existed, and becoming 
pre-eminently depraved, and enemies to the Lord, 



278 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

sought, and still seek, to corrupt mankind — watching 
to seduce men to their ruin ; " seeking,"" as the 
Apostle Peter expresses it, "whom they may devour." 
And it appears, moreover, that these evil beings have 
a Prince or Leader, called Satan (the Adversary), the 
Wicked One, the Devil, of whom our Lord expressly 
speaks as exercising authority over a host of evil 
spirits, called by him the angels of the devil, (as 
when he speaks of " everlasting fire prepared for the 
devil and his angels,") and exercising influence by 
their agency ; and thus being present to the minds 
of many men at the same time ; since a leader of a 
numerous host may be said (and commonly is said) 
to do that which is actually performed by his servants 
or soldiers under his direction. Numerous are the 
references to the existence of the great spiritual per- 
sonal enemy of mankind, see for instance, among 
many others, Matt. xiii. 25, 39 ; John viii. 44 ; 1 
Tim. iii. 6 ; 2 Tim. ii. 26 ; 1 Peter v. 8 ; 1 John 
iii. ; Heb. ii. 14 ; Kev. xx. 2. Surely it is an 
awful, an appalling thought, that we may be this 
moment and every moment, in the presence of ma- 
lignant spirits, who are watching occasions for our 
destruction. 

And yet, notwithstanding all these express and 
reiterated statements, there are persons professing 
belief in the Sacred Writings who yet deny the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 279 

existence of any evil spirits ; maintaining that it is 
a thing utterly impossible that God should permit 
any such beings to exist. And as for what Christ 
and his Apostles have said, their expressions, it is 
contended, are to be understood as a mere accommo- 
dation to the popular notions of the day. "When 
they speak of any temptation, or any affliction, 
bodily or mental, as proceeding from Satan or his 
angels, this we are told is only a condescension to 
vulgar prejudices, and what is meant is merely a 
"personification" of moral evil ; a metaphorical de- 
scription of man's vicious propensities or natural 
diseases. Thus they explain away the narrative 
given by three of the Evangelists of the temptation 
of our Lord in the wilderness, from the direct assaults 
of Satan, into a parable, or figurative description. 
Now it is observable, that this is not one o£ those 
transactions which are mentioned incidentally in the 
course of the narratives of other matters, nor is it a 
transaction which the Sacred Writers had witnessed, 
and which they might be supposed to have mentioned 
merely because they had witnessed it, but it must 
have been brought to their knowledge by Jesus him- 
self ; either relating it orally to his disciples while 
he remained on earth, or else communicating it by 
the inspiration of his Spirit afterwards. And yet 
we are told that we are to regard this narrative as a 



280 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

poetical figure of speech, representing Satan as a 
real personal agent, while in reality no such being 
had any part in the transaction, or ever existed at 
all. But, even supposing the language employed to 
be such as might, conceivably, bear such an inter- 
pretation, still Jesus knew that his hearers would 
not so interpret it, but would understand it in the 
literal obvious sense, in which indeed it has been 
understood by nearly all Christians for eighteen cen- 
turies. Now when we remember that he who speaks 
that which is false in the sense in which he is aware 
he will be understood, is manifestly a deceiver 5 not 
the less, though he may have some hidden meaning 
which is true : what are we to think of the moral 
notions of those who can assert, that he, whom they 
profess to acknowledge as the heaven-sent Teacher 
of the^ Truth, led his disciples to believe that he 
was tempted by a personal agent, when he knew 
that no such being was concerned? Him whom 
these bold interpreters profess to venerate as having 
" come into the world to bear witness of the truth :" 
Him and his Apostles they represent as not merely 
conniving at, but deliberately confirming and esta- 
blishing a superstitious error ! For it must be re- 
membered, that this belief of both Gentile and Jew 
in the existence of evil spirits, if an error, is certainly 
one which the Lord and his Apostles decidedly incul- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 281 

cated. They do not merely leave uncontradicted, 
or merely assent to what is said by others as to this 
point, or merely allude to it incidentally, but they 
go out of their way, as it were, to assert the doctrine, 
and most plainly and earnestly dwell upon it. Not 
only do they make distinct mention of a single indi- 
vidual evil being as the great enemy of man, and of 
his angels or . emissaries, but numerous instances of 
their agency are recorded by them. Indeed, among 
the miracles related by the Sacred Writers, as 
wrought by Jesus and his disciples, none are more 
prominently put forward than the cures of persons 
possessed by evil spirits, or demons ; (whence the 
word demoniac) and our Lord himself and his disci- 
ples earnestly dwell upon this class of miracles, as a 
distinguishing mark of the Messiah. "If I," said 
He, " by the Spirit of God cast out demons, jlien is 
the kingdom of God come upon you," And so fully 
was this recognized as a distinguishing mark of the 
Messiah, that on the occasion of one of those cures, 
(recorded in Matt, xii, 22) we find the people ex- 
claiming, "Is not this the Son of David?" And 
when Jesus sent forth the seventy disciples to pro- 
claim "the kingdom of God is at hand," we are 
told that the seventy returned from their mission 
with joy, saying, " Lord, even the demons are sub- 
ject to us through thy name," to which he replies, 



282 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

saying, " I beheld Satan as lightning fall from 
heaven. " 

And yet, plainly as these narratives set forth the 
reality of demoniacal possession, there are persons 
found to deny it even among those who acknowledge 
the existence of evil Spirits ; and by these still 
greater violence, if possible, is done to the words of 
the Sacred Writers. These rash and profane inter- 
preters require us to believe that when Jesus spoke 
of "casting out demons," he meant curing natural 
diseases, and was merely accommodating himself to 
the prevailing superstition. They proceed on the 
assumption that the Jews alone, of all nations, had 
this belief in demoniacal possession, which is utterly 
contrary to the fact. And yet this notion is not 
uncommonly entertained even by educated persons, 
not unacquainted with the works of the Classical 
Writers ; though the Greek word used by them, and 
by the New Testament Writers is the same ; and 
though the allusion by the heathen authors are fre- 
quent to possession by a demon (or by a god ; the 
two words being employed by them with little or no 
distinction) as a thing of no uncommon occurrence. 
The Greek word, from which our word enthusiast is 
derived, signified a person thus possessed. We read 
also in the book of Acts (xvii.) of a damsel — not in 
Judea but at Philippi of Macedonia, a Roman colony 



MISCELLANEOUS. 283 

— possessed by a " Spirit of divination."— And the 
heathen Writers represented the priests and priest- 
esses of their celebrated oracles as possessed by a 
like spirit of divination. The reality of the exist- 
ence of demoniacal possession, in connection with these 
oracles, matters not to our present purpose, for which 
it is sufficient to be fully aware and keep steadily 
in mind, that such was the belief among those Pagans, 
no less than among the Jews. The only difference 
was (and this also has aided in misleading many as 
to the fact) that the heathen, as already observed, 
worshipped as their gods, the beings, or supposed 
beings, which the Jews held in detestation as u un- 
clean spirits." Proceeding, however, on this assump- 
tion, which we see to be entirely gratuitous, that 
the belief in demoniacal possession was peculiar to 
the Jews, these modern interpreters maintain that 
the supposed " demoniacs" were no other than mad- 
men whose insane fancies led them to believe them- 
selves possessed. Now this supposition is utterly at 
variance with the Sacred History. For though it is 
certainly not an improbable thing in itself, that some 
madmen should entertain a groundless fancy of being 
thus possessed, yet that the Jews did not attribute 
madness generally to evil spirits and that they dis- 
tinguished it from cases of "possession" is quite 
certain. We read, for instance (in Matt, x.), that 



284 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

" they brought unto Hini all sick people that were 
taken with divers diseases and torments, and those 
that were possessed with demons, and those who 
were lunatics, and those that had the palsy, and He 
healed them." And what is more we find on the 
other hand, that the cases recorded are far from 
being exclusively those of madness ; for we read (in 
Luke xiii. 11) of "a spirit of infirmity," and (in 
Matt, xii.) of a case of blindness and dumbness. The 
belief of the Jews therefore, — be it in any case 
correct or erroneous — as to this agency of evil spirits, 
could not have been founded on what was said by 
insane patients concerning their own condition. 
And as the fact that madness and infirmity, and 
blindness, and dumbness, may be caused by bodily 
diseases was as well known by the Jews as by us, 
there must have been some marks — we cannot at all 
tell what, as there is no record of any such — which 
led them to distinguish — as they undoubtedly did dis- 
tinguish whether rightly or wrongly — what afflictions 
were, and were not, caused by the direct agency of 
demons. 

Such are some of the gratuitous assumptions upon 
which a theory is based that represents our Lord 
and his apostles as accommodating themselves to a 
popular superstition in calling the curing of natural 
diseases the casting out of demons, leaving the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 285 

shocking consequence to follow that they are answer- 
able for all the mischiefs that have arisen from an 
error which they fostered instead of removing it. 
And this error, supposing it to be such — one * not 
relating to speculative points of natural science — for 
instruction in which Scripture was not given, and 
therefore upon which popular language was used as 
the only intelligible one — but on a point intimately 
connected with religion, and moreover, a matter in 
which the contradiction of the popular belief would 
have been easy and intelligible; being, in fact, the 
very doctrine then held by the Sadducees. If such 
a connivance at religious error can be in any case 
justifiable, in this, at least, it would have been 
most completely inexcusable. It would not have 
had even " the tyrant's plea" — necessity, in its fa- 
vour. For supposing the Jews to be ever so much 
wedded to their belief in demoniacal possession, and 
to have been disposed to reject with scorn any one 
who should have merely told them that those patients 
whom they supposed to be possessed were not so, 
and that the popular opinion was all a delusion, — 
supposing this, still if any one who gave them such 
an assurance did, at the same time, cure those very 
patients, every one would have readily believed him. 
To take a parallel case : there are districts in Eu- 
rope, and even in our own country, where the vul- 



286 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

gar sometimes believe that children or others, af- 
flicted with some unusual kind of disease, are be- 
witched by some malicious neighbour, and they 
would be highly displeased with any one who should 
simply tell them that this is groundless. But if we 
could go among these superstitious people, and give 
them assurance, at the same time instantly and com- 
pletely restoring the sufferers to health by a word or 
a touch, — and this not merely in one instance, but 
in all the cases, and these very numerous ones that 
were brought before you, no one can doubt that you 
would readily be believed. 

The connivance, therefore, at superstitious error, 
the confirmation and propagation of religious delu- 
sion, which these interpreters impute to Jesus and 
his followers, would have been one of the most gra- 
tuitous and most inexcusable of all the " pious frauds" 
that ever were committed. Now, if they judged 
such a "pious fraud" as this justifiable and right, 
any man of common sense and common honesty 
must distrust them altogether. For " how can one 
be sure," he may say, at what point these pious 
frauds are to stop ?" How, in short, can one be 
justified in giving any credit at all to those whom 
we suppose to have been knowingly and wilfully 
deceiving their hearers ? 



MISCELLANEOUS. 287 

There are two cases of the agency of evil spirits 
recorded in the New Testament sufficient to prove 
to all who sincerely admit the truth of our Scriptures, 
that the power attributed to demons was not a mere 
description in figurative language of natural disease, 
no mere delusion of a superstitious and enthusiastic 
imagination, but literally and undoubtedly a fact. 
The one is, our Lord's temptation by Satan in the 
wilderness ; and the other, the case in which Jesus 
is recorded by three of the evangelists to have re- 
lieved a demoniac, and permitted the demons to enter 
into a herd of swine. In the temptation of the Son 
of God, and in the possession of brute animals, — such 
as the entrance of the demons into the herd of swine, 
the influence of imagination could have no place. In 
the first, the divine patient was above its delusions, 
in the other the brute was as much below it. 

The narrative of the transaction among the Gada- 
renes is perfectly decisive in proving the reality of 
demoniacal agency, and hence it is that those who 
are resolved to maintain, at all hazards, a contrary 
theory, have found in their attempts to explain away 
the words of the sacred writers, their ingenuity, and 
I may add, their credulity, not a little taxed. Some 
of these rash and profane interpreters explain the 
transaction by saying, that it was the maniac him- 
self — the man who imagined himself possessed by a 



288 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

legion of demons, who in a paroxysm of frenzy (of 
course before his cure), drove the herd of swine over 
a precipice into the lake, and who, immediately 
afterwards was cured of his malady by Jesus, 

Now this is completely at variance with the nar- 
rative of all three of the evangelists. For they all 
agree in describing the herd as driven over the pre- 
cipice after the demons were gone out of the man ; 
that is, after his cure was completed. And the 
whole transaction must have passed before the eyes 
of the Apostles and other disciples, who were in 
attendance on Jesus, as well as of the keepers of the 
swine ; so that we must, if this theory is received, 
suppose all of these to have combined to falsify the 
narrative in a most important point. No one — even 
a retired student more conversant with books than 
with the habits of different kinds of animals — can 
doubt that it must have been at least a very strange 
and striking spectacle to see a man driving — not 
such animals as sheep, but a herd of two thousand 
swine, — not from one field to another, but, over a 
cliff, into a lake ! One can hardly pronounce, per- 
haps, what is or is not possible to be effected by a 
furious maniac, with terrific cries and frantic ges- 
tures. But certainly if such a thing had taken 
place, it must have been what none of the spectators 
could be deceived in, and must have made a strong 



MISCELLANEOUS. 289 

impression on them. Yet all the Evangelists agree 
that no such thing did take place ; all giving a to- 
tally different account of the transaction. 

Moreover, they all agree in saying that the Ga- 
darenes came and " besought Jesus to depart from 
their country;" considering that it was He who 
had caused the destruction of the herd. But if the 
keepers of the swine had seen that it was the maniac 
himself who had done them this damage, they could 
never have felt this displeasure and dread, towards 
the very person who had cured that maniac. One 
might as well suppose they would have been dis- 
pleased with a man for quenching a destructive fire, 
or stopping a raging pestilence. 

We must suppose, therefore — according to the 
above theory — this portion also of the narrative to 
have been a fabrication. 

Now one may fairly ask any one who believes the 
Evangelists to have falsified their history in such 
material points, whether he can trust them at all, 
for anything ? and whether such witnesses would be 
received at all in any court, or rejected with indig- 
nant scorn? 

To take a parallel case : suppose some witnesses 
to declare that a certain individual had been seized 
and carried off as a slave by a band of murderous 
robbers, who compelled him to aid them in their 

u 



290 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS, 

outrages ; that at length he escaped out of their 
hands ; and that after this escape, they went without 
him and committed some remarkable burglary, or 
other such crime ; and then, suppose it to come out 
afterwards, that it was he himself who committed 
that very crime, and that those witnesses had ac- 
tually seen him with his own hands breaking open 
the house, and robbing and murdering the inmates ; 
would not any man of common sense and common 
honesty decide that they were utterly unworthy of 
credit, and deserved to be branded with infamy ? 

Any one then who adopts the theory I have been 
alluding to, may as well go on to maintain that the 
tempest which — just before — our Lord is said to 
have quelled with a word, had at length abated, as 
all storms do ; and that his disciples represented it 
as having suddenly ceased, on his speaking; and 
that the sick persons He was said to have cured, 
some of them had recovered long before, and some, 
long afterwards, and some, not at all : and in short, 
that the disciples originally joined Jesus for no reason 
at all, and afterwards fabricated the accounts of his 
mighty works. 

This theory, little deserving of notice as it is in 
itself, becomes important to be dwelt upon as shew- 
ing how decisively this narrative proves the reality 
of demoniacal agency, if understood in the plain 



MISCELLANEOUS. 29 1 

sense of the words, and as the writers knew they 
would be understood ; since those who are resolved 
at all hazards to reject the doctrine, are obliged to 
explain away the narrative by resorting to the most 
extravagantly forced interpretations, and the most 
revolting conjectures. 

The modern theories of some professed Christian 
writers leave us wholly at a loss to decide where 
Christianity ends and Infidelity begins. They for- 
get one great and important distinction between the 
works of any writers who do not pretend to divine 
revelation, and the books of the Sacred Writers. 
We may hold such works, for instance, as those of 
Aristotle, or Cicero, or Bacon, in great esteem, 
without believing what we find in them any further 
than our own reason approves ; and even, if we 
reject, without sufficient reason, some part of what 
these authors teach, and thus lose a part of the truths 
they inculcate, we may yet profit by another part, 
and be in no danger of continually rejecting more 
and more. But it is not so with a writer who pro- 
fesses (as the Apostles do) to be communicating a 
divine revelation imparted to him through the means 
of miracles. In matters, indeed, unconnected with 
religion, such as points of history, or natural philo- 
sophy, he may be as liable to error as other men, 

v 2 



292 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

without any disparagement to his pretensions; but 
if we reject as false any part of the religion which 
he professes himself divinely sent to teach, we can- 
not, consistently, believe but that his pretensions 
. are either an imposture or a delusion, and that he is 
wholly unworthy of credit. So difficult is it to stop 
short of a rejection of Scripture, if we once begin, 
by making our own conjectures the standard by which 
to try Scripture, instead of taking Scripture as the 
standard for ourselves. 

Any man of honesty, and candour, and common 
sense, is competent clearly to perceive two things — 
first, that Jesus did not accommodate Himself to the 
religious prejudices of His time and country ; else 
He would not have been rejected and crucified by 
His countrymen ; who would have received Him 
gladly if He would have have consented to fall in 
with their notions, and to become such a king as 
their expectations were fixed on. 

And secondly, that His followers would never 
have knowingly exposed themselves as they did, to 
scorn, and persecution, and violent death, but in the 
cause of a religion which they believed true, and in 
attestation of what they had plainly seen and heard ; 
and that consequently we must, if we would be 
Christians indeed, and fellow-disciples with them, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 293 

receive their words (in all that relates to religion) 
as true, and true in the sense in which they them- 
selves knew that they were understood. 

What is revealed to us, therefore, in Scripture on 
various points, is to be received, (however different 
it may be from what we might have conjectured,) 
with humble faith, and reverent docility 

Excessive eagerness to get over some perplexing 
difficulty often leads rash men to overlook entirely 
the difficulties — perhaps much greater — which may 
lie on the opposite side. In the case, however, of 
those who reject all belief in the existence or agency 
of evil spirits, they do not even go one step towards 
removing or lessening the difficulty. The permission 
of evil spirits is only one branch of that great and 
insuperable difficulty — the permission of evil in the 
universe. The difficulty is just as great to explain 
how any evil, however small, should exist, as to ex- 
plain all that does exist in the world. The mortify- 
ing and distressing consequences, indeed, of any evil 
may be greater, but the difficulty of explaining it, 
when that difficulty amounts to an impossibility, 
must be the same in one case as in another. Hence 
total impossibility does not admit of different degrees, 
the smallest amount of misery and the greatest are 
equally inexplicable. All that we can say is, that 



294 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

for some unknown cause evil is unavoidable : and 
that being the case, it would be folly to set limits to 
the operation of an unknown cause, or to wonder at 
one of its effects more than at another. Surely 
there is no greater difficulty — great though it un- 
doubtedly is — in the permission of evil- spirits than 
of evil men. For instance, that so many should be 
sold as slaves, and often to tyrannical masters, is as 
hard to explain, as that any one should have been 
exposed to any kind of affliction from demons. We 
need not wonder that an evil being — whether man 
or demon — should endeavour to degrade others into 
his own condition, but that either should be per- 
mitted to succeed, is a difficulty we cannot at all 
explain, though yet no greater in the one case than 
in the other. 

And yet, obvious as this is, the principal person 
in a tale by an author of considerable repute, is 
represented as being at length convinced of the non- 
existence of evil demons by the argument, that God 
would never permit any evil being to have power to 
molest mankind ; and this argument is represented 
as being urged — and successfully urged — while a 
pirate- ship was actually in sight, the crew of which 
had just been ravaging the country, and committing 
all kinds of atrocities ! The speaker and the hearer 
of the argument are represented as having this before 



MISCELLANEOUS . 295 

their very eyes, and yet without perceiving that it 
completely refuted what was urged ! Whatever, 
therefore, any one may decide as to the actual exist- 
ence of evil spirits, this particular objection to it 
must completely fall to the ground; since it is an 
objection which lies equally against what every one 
knows to be true. If we suppose some happy world 
far distant from our own, in which sin and suffering 
have always been wholly unknown, and if the in- 
habitants of such a world were to doubt the possible 
existence of either bad spirits or bad men, there 
would, in this, be nothing very absurd. But for 
those who have the experience of the various evils 
produced by bad men, to deny the possibility of any 
other evil beings, as a thing which could never have 
been permitted, is an absurdity which, to be refuted, 
needs only to be plainly stated. 

Though an enquiry why evil- spirits exist would 
be fruitless and presumptuous, an enquiry why it 
was made known to us in Scripture may be both 
allowable and profitable. Whether anything be 
made known or not concerning the existence of evil- 
spirits makes indeed no difference as to the difficulty 
of explaining the existence of evil, — but it may 
make a great difference as to the avoiding of evil. 
And the great object of Scripture-revelations through- 



296 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

out, seems to be to assist us not in accounting for 
evil, but in escaping it. Now I would appeal to 
the feelings of any right-minded man, whether the 
greater dread and detestation of sin is not likely to 
be produced by our being plainly informed that there 
are evil spirits striving to seduce and deceive — or to 
urge and drive us into rebellion against God — 
whether we are not so constituted, as to be more 
watchfully careful against being over-reached and 
deceived by a personal enemy than against any other 
kind of temptation — more zealously active in resist- 
ing the attacks of a living being who seeks our 
destruction than in counteracting our own inclina- 
tions. It is true that the thought of being given up 
to the base and brutish propensities of the meaner 
portion of man's nature — of losing the proper dignity 
of a rational being — of forgetting God and living as 
strangers and aliens before Him : — and of forgetting 
immortal happiness, — all this is indeed very shocking 
to a well-disposed mind, but yet not so horrible and 
appalling as the thought of being ruled over and 
directed by an evil spirit — of cherishing in our bosom 
the great enemy of mankind, or agents of his, who 
hate both God and us, and who are busied in pre- 
paring men to share in their final ruin. Now the 
very unpleasantness of these thoughts, which is per- 
haps what has led some men to deny the agency of 



MISCELLANEOUS. "297 

evil spirits altogether, and to explain the Scripture 
language as a mere personification of moral evil, is 
the reason why God has revealed it. He would not 
have taught us the existence of Satan and his angels 
merely to alarm us, if it had not been true: but, it 
being true, it is in His mercy He has set before us 
all the horrible reality, that we may be the more 
active and resolute in seeking to escape and to guard 
against such an enemy. He knows that there is a 
kind of ardour and energy infused into the human 
breast by th,e thought of a contest with an enemy ; 
not with a mere thing, but a person — an active 
being, who hates us, and 'who seeks our destruction, 
but whom God has given us power to resist, if we 
contend firmly, and over whom we shall finally 
triumph, under the banner of our great leader, 
Christ, if we are not wanting in our own de- 
fence. 

It is well known how common it is to find Satan 
and his angels, and everything connected with them, 
including the " everlasting fire prepared " for them, 
and for those who are seduced by them, considered 
as something ludicrous, as something that can hardly 
be mentioned or alluded to with gravity, as some- 
thing that not only excites mirth when incidentally 
referred to, but is even frequently forced in, for the 



298 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

joke's sake, and made to furnish a subject for 
pleasantry. 

Now surely this is a remarkable and a strange 
thing ; for generally speaking, right-minded persons 
— all who have any pure sentiments and delicacy of 
taste — are accustomed to regard wickedness and 
misery as most unfit subjects for jesting. They 
would be shocked at any one who should find amuse- 
ment in the ravages and slaughter perpetrated by a 
licentious soldiery in a conquered country ; or in the 
lingering tortures inflicted by wild Indians on their 
prisoners ; or in the burning of heretics under the 
Inquisition. Nay, the very Inquisitors themselves, 
who have thought it their duty to practise such 
cruelties, would have been ashamed to be thought 
so brutal as to regard the sufferings of their victims 
as a subject of mirth. And any one who should 
treat as a jest the crimes and cruelties of the French 
Revolution, would generally be deemed more de- 
praved than even the perpetrators themselves. 

Yet so it is, that the wickedness, and the misery, 
past and future, of evil spirits, and of such of our 
fellow- creatures as are seduced by them, are com- 
monly treated as a jest ! 

Now suppose a rational being — an inhabitant of 
some other planet — could visit this our earth, and 
witness the gaiety of heart with which Satan and 



MISCELLANEOUS. 299 

his agents, and his victims, and the dreadful doom 
reserved for them, and everything relating to the 
subject, are, by many persons, talked of and laughed 
at, and resorted to as a source of amusement, what 
inference would he be likely to draw ? 

Doubtless he would, at first, conclude that no one 
believed anything of all this, but that we regarded 
the whole as a string of fables, like the heathen 
mythology, or the nursery-tales of fairies and en- 
chanters, which are told to amuse children. But 
when he came to learn that these things are not only 
true, but are actually believed by the far greater part 
of those who, nevertheless, treat them as a subject 
of mirth, what would he think of us then? He 
would surely regard this as a most astounding proof 
of the great art, and of the great influence of that 
Evil Being who can have so far blinded men's under- 
standings, and so depraved their moral sentiments, 
and so hardened their hearts, as to lead them, not 
merely to regard with careless apathy their spiritual 
Enemy, and the dangers they are exposed to from 
him, and the final ruin of his victims, but even to 
find amusement in a subject of such surpassing hor- 
ror, and to introduce allusions to it by way of a jest ! 

May the Holy Spirit implant in us all a more 
Christian temper of mind, and more sober and ra- 
tional thoughts, and more humane and purer senti- 



300 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

inents ! May He deliver us from all those supersti- 
tious delusions with which the great Enemy of Man 
seeks to mislead us, and to turn our attention from 
real dangers, to false and imaginary alarms ! And 
may we have grace to "watch and pray" as we 
have need to do, "that we enter not into temptation :" 
to watch in the right place, and to pray to that all- 
powerful spiritual Friend, who alone is able to deliver 
and to guard us in every spiritual danger, and who 
has promised to be at hand to all who earnestly seek 
Him! 

It is not to be supposed that our spiritual Adver- 
sary will always present the same temptation again 
and again in the same shape ; even beasts of prey 
have more sagacity than to lurk always in the same 
spot of the same thicket. 

The temptations of Satan are to be detected by 
their character — were he to appear in his proper 
person the temptation would be recognized by the 
tempter — the fruits by the tree ; but in the tempta- 
tions which actually occur, the tempter is to be 
recognized by the temptation, — the tree by its fruits. 

It is remarkable that it was about the time of the 
Kedeemer's coming, that men were most familiar 



MISCELLANEOUS. 301 

with the fact of the agency of Satan and his angels. 
But it was necessary to display His superiority over 
moral evil, as over physical, by a sensible and per- 
ceptible victory, not only over disease and death, 
but also over "him who had the power of death/ ' 
in short, by exhibiting u the seed of the woman " 
bruising the serpent's head. Hence, we may sup- 
pose it was, that the great Enemy was permitted, at 
that time more especially, to exercise a direct, per- 
ceptible, and acknowledged agency, in order to 
render his defeat the more conspicuous ; that we 
might, as it were, behold him "like lightning fall 
from heaven." And He who for our sake encoun- 
tered and vanquished him, is now ready and " able 
to save to the uttermost, all that come unto God by 
Him." 

In the Old Testament history, the angels that are 
mentioned as appearing are generally not created 
persons, but immediate manifestations of the Lord 
Himself, even in those places in which the human 
form is assumed; so that the expressions, " the 
Lord," and "the Angel of the Lord," are used in- 
discriminately ; and accordingly, in most of these 
passages, you read of divine worship being offered 
and accepted. To the angels, on the contrary, men- 



302 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

tioned in the New Testament — the ministering spirits 
recorded as appearing — divine worship either is not 
offered, or is carefully rejected. " See thou do it 
not I" says the angel to John in the Book of Kevela- 
tion ; " for I am thy fellow-servant/ 5 It is impor- 
tant to observe that by the Lord Jesus, on the 
contrary, such worship was accepted. 

Almighty God has revealed Himself as the proper 
object of religion — as the one only power on whom 
we are to feel ourselves continually dependent for all 
things, and the one only Being whose favour we are 
continually to seek ; and, lest we should complain 
that an infinite Being is an object too remote and 
incomprehensible for our minds to dwell upon, He 
has manifested himself in his Son, the man Jesus 
Christ, so that to love, fear, honour, and serve 
Jesus Christ, is to love, fear, honour, and serve 
Almighty God : Jesus Christ being " one with the 
Father," and "all the fulness of the Godhead" 
dwelling in Him. 

In the beginning of his Gospel John tells us, 
" God, no man hath seen at any time ; the only 
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, 
He hath declared Him." Now, the declaration 
which John here speaks of, cannot be understood as 



MISCELLANEOUS. 303 

merely an authoritative announcement of God's will, 
such as was made by the prophets, because the con- 
text evidently shews that he is speaking of some- 
thing peculiar to the only begotten Son ; eVe?j/o9 
i^rjaaro : " It is He that hath declared Him :" this 
declaration therefore does not refer to a mere message 
sent from God, but to a manifestation of God him- 
self in Jesus Christ : which the Apostle has just 
described by saying, u The Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us ;" and which another Apostle, 
Paul, describes by saying, " God was manifest in 
the flesh ;" and again, Christ was " the brightness 
of his glory, and the express image of his person." 
Again, the same Apostle says of Him, " Who is 
over all, God blessed for ever ;" and besides Thomas's 
confession, and St. Jude's expression, " The only 
wise God our Saviour Jesus Christ," we have the 
form of words prescribed to be used in baptism, 
which even alone are of irresistible weight. But 
not to multiply quotations, I only add that we have 
the prophetic title of " Immanuel, God with us j" 
which, if it had been meant of mere inspiration, 
would have been no mark of distinction for the Mes- 
siah, but would have been equally applicable to all 
the prophets, and which not applying to his name, 
must have applied to his nature. 



304 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

Jesus was tried, in the first place before the Jew- 
ish Sanhedrim, and was found guilty of blasphemy, 
because He confessed himself " the Son of the living 
God." By this title the Jews understood Him to 
claim a divine character, and upon his own confes- 
sion they adjudged Him worthy of death. Unless, 
therefore, we conceive Him capable of knowingly 
promoting idolatry, — unless we can consider Jesus 
himself as either an insane fanatic or a deliberate 
impostor claiming divine honor not belonging to Him, 
— unless we come to a conclusion involving a diffi- 
culty so revolting to all notions of Divine purity and 
indeed of common morality, that all difficulties on 
the opposite side are as nothing, we must assign to 
Him " the Author and Finisher of our Faith/ 5 the 
only begotten Son of God, who is one with the Fa- 
ther, — that divine character which He and his apos- 
tles so distinctly claimed for Him ; and acknowledge 
that " God" truly " was in Christ reconciling the 
world unto Himself." In short, if we would believe 
in Him at all, we must believe in Him as perfect 
God no less than perfect man. 

The same revolting difficulty is involved if we 
suppose our Lord to have received, without any at- 
tempt to undeceive him, Thomas's confession of faith 
in his divine nature, for that the words " my Lord 
and my God " were an ascription of Deity, and not 



MISCELLANEOUS. 305 

a mere exclamation of surprise, is evident both from 
the original Greek (which is, literally, the Lord of 
me, and the God of me) and from our Lord's answer 
to him. 

So fully did the Jews understand Jesus to claim to 
be the Son of God, in a sense so peculiar as to make 
them charge him with making himself " equal with 
God," that not only did they take up stones to cast 
at him for making himself God, being a man, but it 
was on this very claim He was condemned. As soon 
as He acknowledged Himself to be " the Son of the 
living God," His judges cried " What need we any 
further witness ? we ourselves have heard of his own 
mouth," and immediately, they pronounced Him 
guilty of death. And it is worthy of remark, that 
his being thus convicted on his own testimony alone, 
was perhaps in order to fulfil more emphatically his 
own declaration — " No man taketh my life from me, 
but I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay 
it down, and I have power to take it again." 

When the disciples were censured for rubbing out 
the grains of corn on the Sabbath, the Lord's defence 
of them plainly turns on His own especial and divine 
authority. He alludes to the case oi David and his 
companions, who ate, not without the permission of 



306 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

the Priest, the shew-bread, which it was not lawful 
for any but the priests to eat. This was, 1st, tacitly 
acknowledging that the act of His disciples was, in 
itself, as unlawful as the eating of the shew-bread 
by any but a priest ; 2ndly, it was claiming for Hhn- 
self, at least, equal authority with the priest, who 
dispensed with the rule in David's favour ; 3rd, it was 
claiming rather more authority ; because there was 
not, in this case, as in David's,, the plea of urgent 
necessity. But then, he proceeds to compare this 
case with that of the "priests in the temple," who 
were permitted to profane the Sabbath, by doing the 
necessary work for the Temple- service : now, this 
could not mean that the example of the priests in the 
temple authorized all men to go about their ordinary 
business on the Sabbath ; but that example did apply 
to the disciples who were occupied in ministering to 
Him who was Himself the Temple, in whom " all the 
fulness of the Godhead dwelt" (Mark ii. 23—28; 
Matt. xii. 6) ; and who, on another occasion, to which 
I conceive He was in this place alluding, claims for 
Himself the very title of the " Temple" (John ii. 19 
— 22). Lastly, He declares that the " Son of Man 
is Lord of the Sabbath, inasmuch as the Sabbath 
was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." 

On this passage, which has often been but indis- 
tinctly understood, it may be remarked, 1st, that it 



MISCELLANEOUS. 307 

Implies an actual violation of the Sabbath ; else it 
would have been needless to plead a supreme power 
over that ordinance : 2ndly, that it not only cannot 
imply that any other man had a similar dispensing 
power, but implies the very reverse ; else it would 
have been nugatory to claim for the " Son of Man" 
(the title by which Jesus distinguished Himself) a 
power which others might equally claim : 3rdly, that 
these are not (as some have represented) two distinct 
remarks, but stand in the relation of Premiss and 
Conclusion; "the Sabbath was made for man, and 
not man for the Sabbath ; therefore the Son of Man 
is Lord also of the Sabbath." He evidently means 
that though He made no pretensions to a dispensing 
power in respect of moral duties (man being made 
for them), positive ordinances, on the contrary, being 
a made for man" (i. e., designed as means — often as 
local or temporary means — to facilitate man's im- 
provement), might be dispensed with, or abrogated 
by, the same authority which established them ; viz., 
by the divine authority which He claimed. The 
reasoning, at full length, and stated regularly, will 
stand thus : — " Any positive ordinance (i. e., one 
made for man, and not man for it) may be dispensed 
with by my (divine) authority : the Sabbath is such 
an ordinance; therefore the Sabbath may be dis- 
pensed with by my authority." 

x 2 



308 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

Christ's being very often, and pointedly, spoken 
of as a man, has been urged as an argument that 
He was no more than man ; whereas it is a very- 
strong confirmation of the arguments on the very- 
opposite side ; for if Christ were but a man, and if 
nobody had ever supposed Him divine, what need 
could an Apostle have to insist on His humanity any 
more than on his own, or any one's else? but if all 
readily believed that Christ was divine, it then be- 
came important to enforce the belief that He was a 
man. Indeed it appears to have been a very early 
error to maintain that Christ was a man in appear- 
ance only, and his body a phantom. Hence St. 
John makes it a test of orthodoxy to confess that 
"Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," but if they were 
mistaken in thinking Christ divine, they would surely 
have been told expressly that He was not; since to 
tell them merely that He was human, was mani- 
festly insufficient to disabuse them. 

The Apostles do indeed direct our worship exclu- 
sively to God; but to u God in Christ, reconciling 
the world unto Himself; 77 nor do they dwell on the 
necessity of making in our devotions, any mental 
separation of the two natures of that person who is 
the object of our worship. They addressed their 
prayers to a being whom they regarded as both 



MISCELLANEOUS. 309 

divine and human; "the man Christ Jesus," in 
whom "dwelleth" (not some emanation or portion 
of the Deity, but) " all the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily," They addressed Him in their worship by 
his human name, as " Lord Jesus, receive my 
spirit." Nor could they, indeed, have invoked him 
as their intercessor and mediator, by virtue of his 
meritorious sacrifice, keeping out of their minds the 
human nature which those offices imply. Observe 
how, in the. epistle to the Colossians, Paul presents 
to our view the divine and the human attributes of 
our Saviour almost simultaneously; "in whom," 
says he, "we have redemption through his blood, 
even the forgiveness of sins ; who is the image of 
the invisible God, the first-born of every creature, 
(7rpix)T07oicos iraan^ tcriGews, born before all creatures) 
for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven 
and that are in earth, visible and invisible." (Col. i. 
14, 15, 16.) That the notions conveyed by such 
expressions to a plain reader are philosophically 
correct, I will not undertake to maintain : it is suffi- 
cient that they are Scriptural. And the Scriptures 
being designed, by unerring wisdom, for the instruc- 
tion of the simple unphilosophical minds of the mass 
of mankind, differ in this important respect from 
any philosophical treatise ; that while the latter is 
liable to be utterly misunderstood by those destitute 



310 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

of the advantages of education and learning, they 
cannot, though they may contain passages not in- 
telligible to the unlearned, be calculated to mislead 
them as to important matters, by conveying to their 
minds an obvious sense which yet shall not be the 
true one. 

This consideration the Socinians appear to have 
always overlooked. Finding that this or that text 
may possibly be so explained as to avoid the ob- 
noxious doctrine, they try another, and finding that 
this also may be explained away, they so go through 
them all ; not considering how immensely the im- 
probability is multiplied, of such a series of texts, — 
such a chain of testimony — being all to be under- 
stood, according to a forced interpretation, and not 
according to the obvious sense. If I have to make 
one hundred throws with dice, it is not very impro- 
bable that I may throw sixes the first time, nor is 
it very improbable that I may the second time ; and 
so on, of any other single throw : but who would 
infer from thence that it is not improbable I may 
throw sixes one hundred times running ? which 
every one will allow to be a moral impossibility. 
At the best they will have made out the Sacred 
Writers to be laying a snare for their readers. 
Even admitting that every passage in Scripture 
would, considered in itself, bear their interpretation, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 311 

still if the simple and obvious meaning to plain 
readers be the reverse of the truth, how can the 
Scriptures convey a revelation ? If, as they contend, 
the worship of Christ be idolatry, must not the 
Scriptures themselves be charged with leading ordi- 
nary Christians into idolatry? 

To explain the atonement of Christ I do not pre- 
tend ; but as for the fact, I cannot conceive how a 
man can doubt it who really believes the Scriptures, 
and searches them with a candid mind, without any 
predetermination to believe nothing but what he can 
understand. To quote every passage in which this 
doctrine is stated and alluded to, would be to tran- 
scribe the bulk of the Sacred Writings. 

He was the begotten of his Father from all 
eternity, as He was our Redeemer from all eternity ; 
(whence He is called " the Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world ") for it must be borne in 
mind that there is not with God, as with us, a dis- 
tinction of past, present, and future / but all things 
are eternally and simultaneously present to the 
divine mind: hence the name of God is I AM 
(Jehovah), and hence Christ says, (not that He 
was from all eternity, but) " before Abraham was, 
I am." 



312 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

We can comprehend this eternal presence of all 
things only as we can the divine nature in general ; 
i.e., by negatives : e. g., all that we can comprehend 
of eternity is, that it has no beginning, and no end : 
in like manner, as all our idea of duration is de- 
rived from the succession of ideas, (vide Locke,^ 
which a being perfectly omniscient cannot have, we 
are led by the feeble glimmer of reason, as well as 
by Scripture, to conclude that with God there can 
be no distinction of past, present, or future ; and 
that is all we know or can conceive about it. 

In treating of the Trinity, I wish hypostasis had 
been used instead of person, because it would have 
conveyed none but the right sense. Person in its 
ordinary sense, always implies a distinct substance ; 
in its theological sense, it is a literal, or rather, 
perhaps, an etymological translation of the Latin 
word persona, which has not that meaning, and is 
applied by the Church to express the distinction 
which she affirms to exist between Those whose 
identity of substance she expressly maintains. 

God is in a certain sense one, and in a certain 
sense three, and the Apostles were commanded to 
baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost; because no man can be a Christian, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 313 

unless lie not only acknowledge God, but acknow- 
ledge Him, 1st, in his simply divine nature, and as 
the Creator of the world who sent into the world 
that being of two natures, Jesus Christ ; 2ndly, as 
united with the human nature in that very being 
who redeemed and who intercedes for us ; and 3rdly, 
as entering into, sanctifying, and otherwise spi- 
ritually operating upon his creatures. 

The circumstance, that the first Christian writers 
neither mentioned the Trinity nor alluded to any 
hard or revolting mystery in that point, from which, 
in after ages, arose so much difficulty, controvers}^ 
and schism, is briefly and readily accounted for by 
the Socinians, by their denying that the Apostles 
taught any such doctrine ; but this is to remove one 
difficulty by raising another much greater ; for on 
this hypothesis we must suppose that the disciples 
baptized in the name of God, of a man, and of a 
quality or operation ; and that both they and Christ 
Himself applied to a mere man many attributes of 
the Deity ; or at least said enough to put their con- 
verts (whom they never cautioned on this head) in 
great danger of attributing divinity to one who was 
really but a man ; conclusions so revolting that it is 
wonderful how a candid mind can submit to them. 



314 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

The doctrine of the Trinity, (which is, perhaps, 
the oftenest of any treated as a speculative truth, 
about which none but learned divines need trouble 
themselves,) as it is a summary of that faith into 
which we are baptized, and the key- stone, of the 
Christian system, ought to be set forth continually 
and universally, as the support of every part of the 
building of the Christian faith, and the Christian 
life ; reference should be made to it, not merely on 
some stated solemn occasions, as to an abstruse tenet 
to be assented to, and then laid aside, but perpetually, 
as to a practical doctrine, connected with every other 
point of religious belief and conduct, and the foun- 
dation of the Christian faith, and hope, and love. 

As the doctrine of the Trinity may be considered 
as containing a summary and compendium of the 
Christian faith, so its application may be regarded 
as a summary of Christian practice. As we believe 
God to stand in these relations to ws, we also must 
practically keep in view the three corresponding 
relations in which, as is plainly implied by that 
doctrine, we stand towards Him ; as, first, the child- 
ren of God ; and " if children, then heirs ; heirs of 
God, and joint-heirs with Christ, " by adoption : 
secondly, as the redeemed people of the Lord Jesus 
Christ ; purchased to Himself for His service ; and 



MISCELLANEOUS. 315 

thirdly, as being "the temple of the Holy Ghost," 
our Sanctifier, remembering that " if any one defile 
the temple of God, him will God destroy." This 
threefold relation kept before us, in heart and life, 
we shall find in God a Father, a Saviour, and a 
Comforter, now and for ever. 

It is a common error, to acknowledge in general 
terms, the necessity of the ordinary operation of the 
Spirit, but to explain them away in each particular 
case ; thus completely nullifying the doctrine of 
spiritual influence. 

Redemption by Christ, and the other doctrines 
immediately connected with this, are exposed to be 
rejected, from their being by no means flattering to 
the pride of human nature. Men are apt to be pre- 
judiced against them, from wishing to believe only 
such truths as their own reason can discover, and to 
be saved solely by their own merits ; and especially 
is this prejudice the besetting sin of men whose 
reason is cultivated, and who are free from the pro- 
pensity to gross vices. Some such men bring them- 
selves to withstand the evidence of Christianity ; 
others think it easier (though both are, in truth, 
equally hard) to explain away those doctrines they 
object to ; and which are, in reality, all that make 
the essential difference between Christianity and In- 



316 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

fidelity. But I would not attribute this temper to 
all Socinians, many of whom, I trust, would scorn 
the uncandid artifices and gross cheats (such as," I 
believe, were never exceeded in any controversy) by 
which too many of their leaders seek to maintain 
their cause. And many Socinians have, I am con- 
vinced, been scared from belief by the harsh, revolt- 
ing, self-contradictory statements, the dogmatical 
violence, and the futile explanations, into which too 
many of the orthodox have fallen. It should be 
remembered, among other things, that a professed 
explanation may always be fairly objected to, if 
unintelligible ; not so, if you keep to the words of 
Scripture, for what we cannot comprehend may 
nevertheless be true, and must be, if God has ex- 
pressly revealed it. 

To have ascertained, and to perceive a reason for 
anything that God has done, is far different from 
perceiving the reason ; though the two are often con- 
founded. We are sure that the sun gives light and 
heat to the world ; and many ignorant savages, per- 
haps, conclude from thence, that it was created for 
no other purpose ; doubtless we are as much called 
on for gratitude as if the case were so ; but we are 
well assured that many other planets partake of the 
same advantages, and we should be very much to 



MISCELLANEOUS. 317 

blame, were we to conclude positively that even this 
is the only, or indeed the principal, purpose for 
which the sun was created. So, whatever benefits 
to mankind we may perceive from the manifestation 
of God in the flesh, we have no right to infer that 
there may not be other, and even greater objects 
effected by it, of which, for the present at least, we 
must remain ignorant. 

If, with due reverence, we enquire — not, why the 
incarnation of God in Christ was necessary — an 
enquiry both fruitless and presumptuous, — but (as 
what it cannot but behove us to know) why He 
thought fit to reveal this incarnation, to announce 
Himself as the eternal "Word made flesh," we shall 
find good reason for concluding that it was, in part 
at least, for two purposes most important to man- 
kind ; first, by a softened and endearing, as well as 
impressive, manifestation of the Deity, to aid and 
exalt our piety, engaging our affections in the cause 
of religion ; and secondly, by a bright example of 
superhuman virtue, seconded by the promise of spi- 
ritual aid, to instruct and encourage us in our duty 
— to illuminate and direct our Christian course — 
to purify and elevate our nature. The one purpose, 
in short, may be said to have been to bring down 
God to man, the other to lift up man towards God. 



318 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

Jesus Christ, as " the image of the invisible God," 
declared God to man by manifesting, as far as our 
feeble faculties well permit, the divine glory, and 
shadowing forth the attributes of the unsearchable 
God, exhibiting a more impressive and endearing 
picture of them than we could in any other way 
attain ; and thus drawing our whole heart and affec- 
tions towards Him. 

When Christ fed a multitude with five loaves, He 
made not indeed a greater, or a more benevolent dis- 
play of power, than He does in supporting, from 
day to day, so many millions of men and other 
animals as the earth contains ; but it was an instance 
far better calculated to make an impression on men's 
minds of his goodness and parental care. I speak 
not now of this miracle as an evidence of his pre- 
tensions ; for that purpose would have been answered 
as well by a miracle of destruction ; but of the 
peculiar beneficent character of it. The same may 
be said of his healing the sick, raising the dead, 
and teaching the people. 

Many, it is true, of the qualities which our Lord 
displayed, such as his patience under provocation, 
and fortitude against pain and danger, are such as 
can belong to Him in his human nature alone, and 
can present us but a very faint shadow of the attri- 
butes of God considered as such ; but still these are 



MISCELLANEOUS. 319 

attributes of one and the same Person, in whom we 
believe the divine and human natures to have been 
united ; though we can no more comprehend that 
union than we can that of the human soul and body; 
and they are well fitted to fix our affections on that 
Person. 

If, as is notoriously the fact, our only notion of 
the divine attributes, and our terms for expressing 
them, are, and always must be, borrowed from such 
human qualities as have the most analogy to them, 
it seems to follow inevitably, that the more excellent 
man would give us ever the more adequate notion of 
the divine excellence ; and, consequently, that the 
life of that Man who was altogether perfect, by 
union with the Godhead, must afford us the very 
best idea (however imperfect that best may be) that 
we can attain of the moral attributes of God. 

As it may be said to have been one purpose of the 
revelation, of the stupendous work of the incarnation 
to bring down God to man ; so we have reason to 
conclude another purpose to have been to lift up 
man to God, by exhibiting, seconded by the pro- 
mise of spiritual aid, a perfect and exalted model 
of human excellence, and proposing it for our imi- 
tation. 



320 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

It is an old and well-established maxim, that men 
learn better from example than from precept. But 
the difficulty is to find an example fit for imitation. 
Mere human models are all, more or less, imperfect ; 
and the faults and the virtues of each individual 
are, in general, so intimately blended, that there 
must always be a certain degree of danger in copy- 
ing even the best men. And an ideal model, such 
as the Sapiens, the wise man, or perfectly good and 
happy character, whom the Stoics held forth as a 
pattern, even if we suppose it unexceptionable, 
wants, as ideal, the power of inspiring that interest 
and sympathy — that affectionate reverence — that 
emulation which a really existing person can alone 
inspire ; and, being represented to us only by general 
description, is but one short step removed from ab- 
stract moral precept. The mode by which this dif- 
ficulty is met by Christianity, is absolutely peculiar 
to it. By it — and by it alone — an example is pro- 
posed to us, superior by its living reality to all ideal 
models however perfect, and to all real but human 
ones, in its superhuman perfection. 

If, while some of the ancient moralists were em- 
ployed in recounting the actions, and holding forth 
the examples, of really existing illustrious men, to 
stimulate the emulation of their hearers, — and while 
others were pointing out, in the grave and lofty de- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 321 

scriptions of the philosopher, or the vivid representa- 
tions of the poet, an ideal exemplar of perfect ex- 
cellence ; — & man exhibited, such as men should be, 
not such as they are, — what would these sages, I say, 
have thought, had they been assured on sufficient 
evidence that such a man had actually appeared on 
earth ; not having his virtues tarnished with defects, 
like the heroes of their histories ; not a phantom of 
imagination, like the persons of their theatre, or the 
w T ise men of their schools ; but a real, living, su- 
blime and faultless model of god-like virtue ? Surely 
they would have acknowledged, with one voice, that 
such a character, and such a one only, was exactly 
suited to their wishes, and to the wants of their 
hearers ; if they were at all sincere in their profes- 
sions, they would have hailed with rapture the 
announcement of his existence ; but would have 
wondered at the same time, and doubted, how human 
nature could ever have attained this pitch of excel- 
lence. We might have answered them, human 
nature by itself is indeed far too weak for the task ; 
but in Christ the divine nature was united to it ; in 
Him " dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily f 
the Deity was ever present in an especial manner 
to direct and support his human soul ; and thus pre- 
sented to his creatures a perfect pattern, which 
through the promised aid of the Spirit of Christ, 



322 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

they may copy ; that by imitating the divine excel- 
lence, as far as it is possible for a creature to do so, 
we may become, as Christ himself expresses it, 
" like unto our Father which is in heaven/' and be 
thus fitted for enjoying a more near approach to his 
presence in a better state ; that we also may be, 
more completely than in this life, u sons of God, 
brethren, and joint-heirs of Christ/ ' and partakers 
of his glory. " Beloved," says the Apostle John, 
"now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet 
appear what we shall be ; but we know that when 
he shall appear we shall be like unto Him ; for we 
shall see Him as He is." 

Whatever may be our station in life, or peculiar 
circumstances, we shall still find that Jesus Christ 
has "left us an ensample that we should follow his 
steps •/' because the principle of devoted obedience 
to God, love towards man, and abjuration of all 
selfish objects, is one which is called for, and must 
be put in practice, in every situation. Besides 
which, it is very remarkable, that while all the 
illustrious characters which are usually held up to 
Dur imitation, are persons who occupied such exalted 
stations, that their lives afford but little instruction 
to those in humbler and more private situations, 
(that is, in fact, to the great mass of mankind,) our 
Saviour's life, on the contrary, though he had so 



MISCELLANEOUS. 323 

high an office to execute, yet, from the humble sta- 
tion in which he appeared, contains lessons for every 
description of mankind. And if the student's own 
heart be not in fault, his character will not fail to 
receive some tincture from the character he is con- 
templating. Every Christian who deserves the name 
makes it his attentive study ; and those who have 
learned the most of it, are ever the most desirous, 
and the most capable, of learning yet more. Many 
valuable writers have treated of the subject ; but 
the Gospels themselves (as those very writers w^ould 
be the first to admit), will teach more of the imita- 
tion of Jesus than all other books together, Each 
man may do more for himself in this study than the 
ablest theologian can do for him. He will find in 
every page such active yet unpretending benevolence 
— such exalted generosity and self-devotedness — 
such forbearing kindness and lowliness, combined 
with dignity — such earnest and steady, yet calm 
and considerate, zeal — such quiet and unostentatious 
fortitude — such inflexible yet gentle resolution — that 
he must acknowledge with the Jewish officers, " never 
man spake like this man :" never did man, he will 
add, act like this man ;" " truly/ 7 as the centurion 
remarked, " this was a righteous man ; truly this 
was the Son of God j" it was " Emmanuel, God 
with us." 

y 2 



324 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

The birth of Him who came into the world to 
save his people from their sins, will be remembered 
by each one of us thousands of ages hence, and for 
ever. It behoves us to reflect, in time, how it will 
be remembered by us in eternity. 

There is but one mediator between God and man, 
— Christ Jesus — between him and man — none. He 
is ever near us — ever ready to hear us. 

Those who deny the divine character of Christ 
and the Atonement by his blood, and reckon Him 
as no more than a great prophet while yet dwelling 
on his resurrection as the chief part of the Gospel 
which they profess to receive, would do well to re- 
ceive the instruction it affords to all who are willing 
to learn. His rising merely from the dead, and 
preaching the doctrine of a general resurrection to 
others, would not, certainly, prove Him to be more 
than man ; but if He raised himself from the dead 
by his own power, and promised to his faithful 'fol- 
lowers not merely that they should rise again, but 
that He would " raise them up at the last day," it is 
surely plain He could be no less than divine. " No 
man,' 7 said he, " taketh my life from me, but I lay 
it down of myself; I have power to lay it down, and 
I have power to take it again." The same Scrip- 






MISCELLANEOUS. 325 



tures that tell us "Him God raised up," plainly 
shew that this was that u fulness of the Godhead" 
which, as the Apostle tells us, " dwelt in Jesus 
Christ bodily." For He is everywhere represented 
as himself overcoming and triumphing over death. 
This He did by leading the way to immortal life ; 
by being " the first fruits of them that slept ;" hav- 
ing, as man, been subject to death, and as God 
" manifest in the flesh " raised himself from death to. 
confirm his promise that He would raise up his faith- 
ful followers ; suffering the penalty of sin in his own 
person, and entering first into the glory prepared for 
his disciples — the reward which He, not they, had 
earned. Hence it is stated by the Apostle that He 
" was delivered for our offences, and rose again for 
our justification." 

The Scriptures present to us the Resurrection of 
Jesus in three points of view. — I. It was a decisive 
evidence of the truth of his Gospel. II. It explained 
in a great degree the doctrines of that Gospel and 
its whole character. III. It furnishes a type, re- 
presentation, or emblem of the new and spiritual life 
required of the Christian ; that we, being dead in- 
deed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus 
Christ our Lord, we may become new creatures, — 
" that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by 



326 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
walk in newness of life." 

The doctrine of salvation by the meritorious sacri- 
fice of Christ, is objected to as dangerous ; but there 
is hardly anything that is not, if men will but de- 
termine to pervert and misapply it. It is urged, 
that a man may give himself up to sin, and call this 
trusting in the merits of Christ : true ! and so may 
a Deist, trusting in like manner to the mercy of 
God ; for who can set bounds to that ? The misin- 
terpretations of perverseness and folly we disavow, 
but cannot prevent ; the fault is in the men, not in 
the doctrines. " Abusus non tollit usum." 

As the cloudy pillar which stood between the 
camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel 
was a cloud and darkness to those, but gave light 
by night to these ; even thus, Paul found the Gospel 
of " Christ crucified" was "to the Jews a stum- 
bling block, and to the Greeks foolishness ;" but to 
them that believe, " the wisdom of God and the 
power of God." 

The Christian faith is not merely to believe what 
Christ has taught, but to believe in Him. Jesus did 
not come to make a revelation so much as to be the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 327 

subject of a revelation. He was only so far the re- 
vealer and teacher of the great doctrines of Christi- 
anity, as we might call the sun and planets the dis- 
coverers of the Newtonian system of astronomy. He 
is not merely the teacher of the true way to eternal 
life,— He is " the Way, the Truth, and the Life." 
He is not merely the preacher of the resurrection 
and immortal life, — He is the Resurrection and the 
Life. 

May his Holy Spirit implant this faith in our 
affections, and enable us to display it in our lives ; 
and bring us to be partakers of the blessing He has 
promised to those who, having "not seen," have 
yet believed ; " that believing, we might have life 
through his name." 

The Socinian's argument weighs against himself 
in several points. For instance, it is urged, that 
the meritorious sacrifice of Christ is a most unintel- 
ligible and mysterious means of salvation ; whereas, 
if we suppose that the establishment of a pure and 
authoritative system of morality was the object o£ 
his mission, the whole is quite conceivable and rea- 
sonable. Such is the Socinian's argument. Now, 
I should be inclined to conjecture, a priori, that a 
revelation would probably contain something which 
unassisted reason would never have devised. It is 



328 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

surely not inconceivable, at least, that God may see 
a fitness in our believing some truths which are, to 
our present faculties, incomprehensible ; supposing", 
as I do, that this is the state of the fact I readily 
perceive the necessity of a revelation, which I could 
not perceive, if I thought this revelation contained 
nothing but what was discovered or discoverable 
without it. 

It has been alleged by objectors to Christianity, 
that God would never interfere with the course of 
his own creation, and therefore that a divine revela- 
tion and miracles are, a priori, impossible. But 
they forget, that it is not in our power to determine 
what are interruptions of the course of Nature. If 
one of the ephemeral insects which only exist a sin- 
gle day, were to be endowed with reason, and to 
have his life so prolonged as to behold the approach 
of night, he would imagine the sinking sun and the 
darkness were a wonderful and terrible interruption 
to the course of nature, instead of part of that regu- 
lar course. And so, if a clock could be so con- 
structed as to strike once in a century, each striking 
would seem to those who knew nothing of its work- 
manship, a curious phenomenon or accident. Again, 
it was at first thought that comets moved at random 
through the skies, and were mere accidents in the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 329 

system of the universe ; now it is known that their 
revolutions are subject to definite laws. And so 
much in the scheme of God's providence which we 
imagined to be interruptions, may, in fact, be 
merely parts of that great system, of which we can 
only dimly understand a small portion. 

Whoever rejects as incredible the notion of there 
having been any direct communication between God 
and man at any time, because we have no visible 
proof of any such communication taking place now, 
must believe that Man at first civilized himself. 
Now everything that we know of the laws of the 
human mind lead us to judge that this is impossible ; 
and all experience tends to prove that such a thing 
has never happened ; nor can a single instance be 
alleged, without manifestly begging the question, of 
any nation that ever of itself made the first steps 
from a savage to a civilized state. When, indeed, 
men have arrived at a certain stage in the advance 
towards civilization (far short of what exists in Eu- 
rope), it is then possible for them, if nothing occurs 
to keep them back, to advance further and further 
towards a more civilized state. Human society may 
be compared to some combustible substances which 
will not take fire spontaneously, but when once set 
on fire will burn with continually increasing force. 



330 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

A community of men requires to be kindled, but 
requires no more. And tbis it is tbat misleads some 
persons in tbeir notions respecting savages. For, 
finding tbat tbere is no one art wbich migbt not bave 
been invented by unassisted Man ^ supposing him to 
have a certain degree of civilization to start from, 
tbey bence conclude tbat unassisted Man migbt bave 
invented all tbe arts, supposing him left originally in 
a completely savage state. But tbis will be found 
to be contradicted by all bistory, and inconsistent 
witb tbe character of sucb beings as savages actually 
are. Tbe turbulent and unrestrained passions, tbe 
indolence — and above all, tbe want of forethought, 
wbich are characteristic of savages, naturally tend 
to prevent, and, as experience seems to shew, always 
bave prevented, any process of gradual advancement 
from taking place, except when the savage is stimu- 
lated by tbe guidance and instruction of men superior 
to himself. 

Any one who dislikes the conclusions to wbich 
these views lead, will probably set himself to con- 
tend against the arguments which prove it unlikely 
that savages should civilize themselves; but how 
will be get over the fact that they never yet have 
done this ? That they never can, is a theory ; and 
something may always be said, well or ill, against 
any theory ; but facts are stubborn things ; and that 



MISCELLANEOUS. 331 

no authenticated instance can be produced of savages 
that ever did emerge, unaided, from that state, is no 
theory, but a statement, hitherto uncontradicted, of 
a matter of fact. 

Now if this be the case, when, and how, did 
civilization first begin ? If Man, when first created, 
was left, like the brutes, to the unaided exercise of 
those natural powers of body and mind, which are 
common to the European and to the New- Hollander 
— how comes it that the European is not now in the 
condition of the New- Hollander? As the soil itself and 
the climate of New-Holland are excellently adapted to 
the growth of corn, and yet (as corn is not indi- 
genous there) could never have borne any to the end 
of the world, if it had not been brought thither from 
another country, and sown ; so, the savage himself, 
though he may be, as it were, a soil capable of re- 
ceiving the seeds of civilization, can never, in the 
first instance produce it, as of spontaneous growth ; 
and unless those seeds be introduced from some other 
quarter, must remain for ever in the sterility of 
barbarism. And from what quarter, then, could 
this first beginning of civilization have been supplied, 
to the earliest race of mankind ? According to the 
present course of nature, the first introducer of 
cultivation among savages, is, and must be, Man, 
in a more improved state : in the beginning therefore 



332 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

of the human race, this, since there was no man to 
effect it, must have been the work of another Being. 
There must have been, in short, a Revelation made 
to the first, or to some subsequent generation, of our 
species. And this miracle (for such it is, as being 
an impossibility according to the present course of 
nature), is attested, independently of the authority 
of Scripture, and consequently in confirmation of 
the Scripture accounts, by the fact, that civilized 
Man exists at the present day. 

Taking this view of the subject, we have no need 
to dwell on the utility, the importance, the antece- 
dent probability— of a Revelation ; it is established 
as a fact, of which a monument is existing before 
our eyes. Divine instruction is proved to be neces- 
sary, not merely for an end which we think desirable, 
or which we think agreeable to divine wisdom and 
goodness, but for an end which we know has been 
attained. That Man could not have made himself, 
is appealed to as a proof of the agency of a divine 
Creator: and that Mankind could not, in the first 
instance, have civilized themselves, is a proof, exactly 
of the same kind, and of equal strength, of the 
agency of a divine Instructor. 

Some are apt to suppose from the copious and 
elaborate arguments that have been urged in defence 



MISCELLANEOUS. 333 

of the authenticity of the Christian Scriptures, that 
it is harder to be established than that of other sup- 
posed ancient books. But the importance and the 
difficulty of proving anything, are very apt to be 
confounded together, though easily distinguishable. 
We bar the doors carefully, not merely when we 
expect an unusually formidable attack, but when we 
have an unusual treasure in the house. 

The authority on which we rest our conviction of 
the genuineness of the New Testament Scriptures, 
is of the same kind with that on which we acknow- 
ledge the works of Cicero and other classical authors, 
though incomparably stronger in degree. For it is 
not to the Roman world, in its widest acceptation, 
but to the literary portion of it, that we appeal in 
respect of any volume of the classics. On the con- 
trary, the Christian Scriptures were addressed to all 
classes (the doctrine of what is called " Reserve/' 
of putting the light of the Gospel under a bushel, 
being no part of the apostolic system), so that pro- 
bably for one reader of Cicero or Livy, there were 
more than fifty persons, even in a very early period 
of the Church, anxious to possess copies of the New 
Testament Scriptures ; and careful, in proportion to 
the high importance of the subject, as to the genuine- 
ness and accuracy of what they read. There are 



334 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

not a few, who being accustomed to hear the authority 
of the primitive church spoken of as that on which 
we receive the New Testament Scriptures, are led 
to fancy it the authority of some one society acting 
collectively, and in its corporate capacity ; and thus, 
they lose sight of the very circumstance on which 
the chief force of this testimony depends, namely, 
that there never was a decree or decision of any one 
Society ; but, what has far more weight, the con- 
curring independent convictions of a great number 
of distinct churches in various regions of the world. 

The testimony which the works of the early 
Fathers bear to the facts and doctrines of the sacred 
books, as Christians now have them, has been well 
compared to that afforded by the fossil remains of 
antediluvian animals, which prove that, at a certain 
remote period, animals such as are now known to us 
have inhabited the earth. 

The credibility of our Scriptures is established by 
several distinct arguments, each separately tending 
to shew that those books were, from the earliest ages 
of Christianity, well known and carefully preserved 
among Christians '; namely: — (1) They were quoted 
by ancient Christian writers (2) with peculiar respect, 
(3) collected into a distinct volume, and (4) distin- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 335 

guished by appropriate names and titles of respect, 
(5) publicly read and expounded, and (6) had com- 
mentaries, &c, written on them; (7) were received 
by Christians of different sects ; &c., &c. 

The Lord's day is observed all over the world, by 
different and even hostile bodies of Christians, in 
memory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And 
not only so, but it is observed by them as a day 
which has been always thus kept, from the very day 
when the Lord Jesus is recorded to have risen, and 
to have appeared to his disciples. Now had the 
observance of it not been from the very first, but 
introduced in some later age, those among whom it 
was thus introduced, would have been able to testify 
that they had never heard of such a festival before. 
Here then is a monument of the truth of the Sacred 
History. 

The existence of a Christian ministry generally, 
or the unbroken apostolical succession of an order of 
men, is perhaps as complete a moral certainty as any 
historical fact can be. For if a century ago, or ten 
centuries ago, or at any other time, a number of 
men had arisen, claiming to be the immediate suc- 
cessors of persons holding this office, when, in fact, 
no such order of men had ever been heard of, such a 



336 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

silly pretension would have been immediately ex- 
posed and derided. And consequently the Christian 
ministry is a standing monument to attest the public 
proclamation of those miraculous events at the very 
time when they are said to have occurred, and when 
there were numbers of persons able and willing to 
expose the imposture had there been any. And this 
argument for the truth of the Sacred History, is quite 
independent of any particular mode of appointing 
Christian ministers. It turns entirely on the mere 
fact of the constant existence of a certain order of 
men. 

This apostolical succession of a Christian ministry 
generally is, however, to be carefully distinguished 
from the apostolical descent, in an unbroken line, of 
this or that individual minister. There is not a 
minister in all Christendom, who is able to trace up 
with any approach to certainty his own spiritual 
pedigree. The sacramental virtue (for such is im- 
plied, whether the term be used or not, in the 
principle) dependent on the imposition of hands, 
with a due observance of apostolical usages, by a 
bishop, himself duty consecrated and previously rightly 
ordained deacon and priest, and rightly baptized, this 
sacramental virtue, if a single link of the chain be 
faulty, must, on the above principle, be utterly nul- 
lified ever after, in respect of all the links that hang 



MISCELLANEOUS. 337 

on that one. And wholly to exclude such irregularity, 
during the long period usually designated as the 
dark ages, would have required a perpetual miracle ; 
and that no such miraculous interference existed we 
have even historical proof, in the recorded descrip- 
tions, not only of the profound ignorance and pro- 
fligacy of life of many of the clergy during those 
ages, but also of the grossest irregularities in respect 
of discipline and form. To suppose the occurrence 
of a perpetual miracle in this case, when no such 
miraculous interference came in to secure the " apos- 
tolical succession" of right faith and right conduct, 
is to represent Christianity as mainly a system of 
outward ordinances ; and to compel alike those who 
believe and those wiio disbelieve the plea, to come 
eventually to the conclusion that, what some regard 
as its essentials, a Christian faith, and a Christian 
heart, are comparatively a small part of it. 

In the case of the books of the Old Testament, 
we have a remarkable proof of their genuineness. 
They could never have been forged by Christians at 
all, because they are preserved and highly reverenced 
by the unbelieving Jews in various parts of the world 
at this day; although these books contain what 
appear, to Christians, most remarkable prophecies of 
Jesus, whom the Jews reject. These are the Scrip - 

z 



338 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

tures which the Jews at Berea were commended for 
searching with diligent care, and the consequence of 
which searching we are told, was, that "many of 
them believed/ 5 Yet, though the people who lived 
in the times of the Apostles had seen these pro- 
phecies so far fulfilled in Jesus, as to afford good 
reason for receiving Him, we have an advantage 
over them in seeing the more complete fulfilment of 
the prophecies that have since taken place. For 
instance, that a religion should arise among the 
Jews, which would have a wide spread among the 
Gentiles, but yet that it should be a new religion, 
not the same as taught by Moses ; and that this 
religion should spring, not from the whole nation, 
but from one individual of that nation, and he a 
person despised, rejected, and persecuted even to 
death, by his own people. All this, which is so 
unlike what any one would have foretold from mere 
guess, and which we see actually come to pass, is 
prophesied in books, which enemies of Christianity 
(the unbelieving Jews of this day) reverence as 
divinely inspired. 

And the proof from these prophecies is made very 
much the stronger by the number of distinct parti- 
culars which they mention ; some of them seeming, 
at first sight, at variance with each other ; but all 
of them agreeing with what has really taken place. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 339 

Such a prophecy is like a complicated lock, with 
many and intricate wards, when you have found a 
key that opens it. An ordinary simple lock may 
be fitted by several different keys, that were not 
made for it : just as a loose general kind of pre- 
diction — of the coming of some great conqueror, or 
the like, — may have been made by guess ; and may 
be found to agree with several different events. But 
the more numerous and complicated are the wards of 
a lock, the more certain you are that a key which 
exactly fits it must be the right key ; and that one 
of them, the key or the lock, must have been made for 
the other. And so it is with prophecies that contain 
many distinct, and seemingly opposite particulars, 
when we see the event fulfilling all those particulars. 

The Jewish people, in their present condition, are 
a kind of standing miracle ; being a monument of 
the wonderful fulfilment of the most extraordinary 
prophecies that were ever delivered; which pro- 
phecies they themselves preserve and bear witness 
to, though they shut their eyes to the fulfilment of 
them. No other account than this of the present 
state, and past history, of the Jews ever has been, 
or can be, given, that is not open to objections ; 
greater than all the objections put together, that 
have ever been brought against Christianity. 

z 2 



340 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

The testimony — whether positive or negative — of 
adversaries and of indifferent persons is generally 
regarded to have great weight ; and the historic 
details, wonderful and miraculous as they are, of 
the Christian Scriptures are not without this impor- 
tant evidence of their truth. Not only have they 
the confirmatory negative testimony of the noncon- 
tradiction of their statements, though publicly put 
forth and generally known, but they have also the 
positive testimony of opponents. It is clear from 
the fragments remaining of the ancient arguments 
against Christianity, and the allusions to them in 
Christian writers, and also from the Jewish accounts 
of the life of Jesus, which are still extant, under 
the title of Toldoth Jeschu, that the original oppo- 
nents of Christianity admitted that the miracles 
were wrought, but denied that they proved the 
divine origin of the religion, and attributed them 
to magic. It is remarkable that in this book,- Toldoth 
Jeschu, one, and only one, of the alleged miracles 
is denied ; so closely does it agree, in this respect, 
with our Sacred Writers, who describe the unbeliev- 
ing Jews as denying the fact of Christ's resurrection, 
but admitting the other miracles, and ascribing them 
to the agency of evil spirits. The prevailing notion 
among the ancients seems to have been, that a ma- 
gician's power, however great, lasted only for his 



MISCELLANEOUS. 341 

life. The resurrection, therefore, of Jesus utterly 
overthrew, in the minds of those who were convinced 
of the fact, a supposition of his being a magician. 
Now the Toldoth Jeschu must have been compiled 
(at whatever period) from traditions existing from the 
very first ; for it is uncredible that if those cotem- 
poraries of Jesus who opposed Him had denied the 
fact of the miracles having been wrought, their de- 
scendants should have admitted the facts, and resorted 
to the hypothesis of magic. And this admission of 
persons living so much nearer the time assigned to 
the miracles, is a most important evidence ; for, 
credulous as men were in those days respecting 
magic, they would hardly have resorted to this ex- 
planation, unless some, at least plausible, evidence 
for the miracles had been adduced ; and they could 
not but be sensible that to prove (had that been 
possible) the pretended miracles to be impostures, 
would have been the most decisive course ; since 
this would at once have disproved the religion. 

The admission by unbelievers of old of the mira- 
cles which attest the Christian religion, while deny- 
ing that a religion so attested was from God, is 
remarkable as a reverse of what is the case in 
modern times, when persons have been found, who, 
while professing themselves believers in Christianity, 



342 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 






represent the disciples (how they came to he disciples 
these persons do not tell us) as having been led by 
zeal for their Master's honour, to exaggerate and 
misrepresent some of the occurrences which they 
record, and to invent others. The sick persons, for 
instance, healed by Him, they represent as having 
accidentally recovered just at the time when they 
were brought to Him. His walking on the water 
was, they tell us, merely a mode of expressing that 
He waded along a shallow portion of the lake ! 
And the five thousand were fed, not with the bread 
distributed to them by the disciples, but with what 
some of themselves had brought with them ; which, 
on that supposition, must have amounted to about 
fifty hundred-weight; a quantity too conspicuous, 
certainly, to have admitted of any deception. 

All this would be simply ridiculous, from its ex- 
cessive absurdity, if it were not so profanely pre- 
sumptuous. And yet men are to be found, professedly 
at least, believing such things, and, all the while, 
imagining themselves not credulous ! 

Then, again, come others, who sweep away with 
merited contempt all this tissue of extravagance, 
and declare that all the miraculous accounts in the 
Gospels were invented in the third or fourth century, 
after the religion had been firmly established in 
men's minds, and when it was received with such 



MISCELLANEOUS. 343 

reverential awe, that stories of miracles connected 
with it were received with ready credence. 

These theologians (for such they call themselves) 
forget that they have substituted for those absurd 
interpretations which they discard, another absurdity 
quite equal to any of them. They tell us of what 
they suppose happened in the Christian world, when 
the Gospel had been fully established; but they 
forget to tell us how it came to be established ! 

Suppose some historian maintaining that the vast 
armies which Napoleon Buonaparte is described as 
bringing into the field, and his prodigious trains of 
artillery, and his wonderful victories, are far beyond 
the bounds of credibility, and are to be set down as 
legendary fables, or what are in modern times called 
myths ; and adding, that these splendid legends were 
gradually invented, and more and more exaggerated, 
in order to do honour to this Napoleon, after he had 
attained an empire, he having raised himself from a 
very humble station to that empire, and subjugated 
the greater part of Eurtfpe, at the head of a handful 
of unarmed followers, and without fighting any 
battles at all. If any one were supposed serious in 
maintaining such a theory, he would be reckoned an 
idiot or a madman. And yet such silly credulity 
has its parallel in that of those who, while rejecting 
the evidence of miracles, must believe that Christ 



344 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

and His Apostles did, without any superhuman 
powers, what we have the best reason for thinking 
no man without such powers could do, and what, 
certainly, without such powers, no other men, in 
like circumstances, have ever done. That a handful 
of Jewish peasants and fishermen should undertake 
to abolish the religion of the whole civilized world, 
and introduce a new one, in defiance of all the pre- 
judices, and all the power of this world arrayed 
against them ; — that they should think to effect this 
by pretending to miraculous powers which they did 
not, and knew they did not, possess ; — and that they 
should succeed in the attempt ; — all this is, surely, 
many times more incredible than anything recorded 
in the Scriptures. For extraordinary, and in them- 
selves improbable, as are the miraculous circum- 
stances, all of them put together are as nothing in 
point of strangeness compared with the only alter- 
native ; with what must be believed by any one who 
should, therefore, resolve to reject these miraculous 
narratives. 

Is it not, cceteris paribus, a greater effort of faith 
to expect a miracle before hand, than to believe in 
the narrative of a past one ? For in this latter case 
there is, on the opposite side, the difficulty, whatever 
it may be, of accounting for a false narrative of a 



MISCELLANEOUS. 345 

matter of fact ; whereas, in regard to what is future, 
how much sooner some may expect it, then expecta- 
tion is a matter of opinion. And a groundless ex- 
pectation or other opinion, is, as a general rule, less 
strong than a groundless narrative. And yet many 
there have been who have professed to disbelieve, or 
to reject all miraculous narrative, and many more 
who find in these their chief difficulty, yet possess 
a firm expectation, unencumbered by any sense of 
difficulty, of the greatest of all miracles, — a future 
life. 

Parallels have been drawn by Hume, in his Essay 
on Miracles, and by writers professing themselves 
Christians, between the miracles recorded in the 
New Testament, and those in the legends of pre- 
tended saints, which last were received ; just as 
counterfeit coin is from its resemblance to genuine* 

The credibility of the New Testament Scriptures 
is established not alone by external evidence, but 
by internal marks of trutli — by those peculiarities 
which distinguish the Christian revelation, alike 
from natural religion and all pretended revelations. 
Some few of these internal evidences, derived from 
the characteristics of the Scriptures themselves, may 
be thus summed up : — 



346 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

I. Not one of the books of the New Testament is 
attributed to Jesus himself; had there been any 
forgery, the forged books, or at least the principal 
of them, would naturally have been put forth as 
written by the very founder of the new religion, 
laying down the principles and precepts of that reli- 
gion, and answering to the books of the law written 
by Moses. 

II. The omission of the title of Christians as ap- 
plied by the earliest Christians to themselves, proving 
the antiquity of the books. The term which was 
manifestly of Roman origin occurs but three times 
in the New Testament ; and in each case, manifestly, 
as employed by those who were not Christians. This 
fact, (however it is to be accounted for, or whether 
we can account for it at all or not,) is one that would 
alone be a sufficient disapproval of the notion of 
some daring speculators, that the New Testament 
writings were composed in the second, third, or 
fourth century, from some vague floating traditions, 
and then, fathered upon the apostles and evangelists 
by fraud, carelessness, and ignorance. Had this 
been the case, the title of " Christians," which was 
then in as common use as it is now, would un- 
doubtedly have been found in the books of the New 
Testament, in its present application by Christians 
to each other. This omission, then, alone furnishes 



LIS 

5S, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 347 

even to a plain unlearned reader, a complete proof 
of their antiquity. And the anxiety of infidels to 
disprove that antiquity, shews plainly how they 
despair of contending, in any other way, against 
their truth. Such books could never possibly, if 
false, have been circulated without detection, at the 
very time when the wonderful events related in 
them, are described as occurring. 

III. The character of Jesus himself, as drawn by 
the Evangelists. It is quite unlike all that had ever 
before appeared, or been described, or imagined ; 
and the picture is evidently an unstudied one. There 
is nothing in it of the nature of eulogium and 
panegyric. 

IV. The brief, calm, unadorned style in which 
the miracles and sufferings of Jesus and his apostles 
are narrated ; and the candid and frank simplicity 
with which the weakness and faults of the disciples 
are described. 

V. The clear revelation of a future state, and the 
promise of eternal life through the resurrection of 
the body. 

VI. The different nature of that kingdom of 
heaven, proclaimed by our Lord and the apostles, 
from that glorious worldly empire which the Jews 
expected ; and the total absence of all attempt to 
accommodate the doctrines to the prejudices, or to 



348 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

flatter the pride, of the Jews, by holding out hopes 
of national or spiritual supremacy. 

VII. The absolute requisition of a morality stricter 
and superior in kind to any hitherto practised, or 
even approved ; and by this opposition, not merely 
to men's natural inclinations, but also in some points 
to their ideas of what is praiseworthy, proving the 
utter incredibility of mere ordinary human beings 
contriving a religion which condemns not only men's 
conduct but their principles. 

VIII. The mode by which that morality is incul- 
cated, so peculiar, 1st, in the motives supplied ; 
2ndly, in the examples proposed ; 3rdly, in the 
precepts delivered, 

IX. The omission not merely, but the exclusion, 
of any sacrifice save that offered up by the founder 
of the religion in his own person ; of any sacrificing 
priest (Hiereus or Sacerdos) except Him, the great 
and true High Priest, and consequently the exclusion 
of any priest, in that sense, on earth ; except so far 
as every one of the worshippers was required to 
present himself as " a living sacrifice, holy, accept- 
able unto God ;" and the exclusion of any temple, 
except the collected congregation of the worshippers 
themselves. When it is remembered that the Gospel 
religion was introduced by men and among men, 
whether Jews or Pagans that had never heard of, or 



MISCELLANEOUS. 349 

conceived, such a thing as a religion without priest, 
sacrifice, altar, or temple, is it credible that Chris- 
tianity should have been without them, if it had 
been invented by men ? 

X. The practical character of the revelation, and 
the careful avoidance of all that could serve to mere 
speculative knowledge, or the gratification of cu- 
riosity, however natural or excusable, the ministering 
to which is a marked characteristic of all other reli- 
gious systems. 

These characteristics, and many others that might 
be pointed out, would be very remarkable if met 
with in any one book ; but it is still more so when 
it is considered that they run through all the books 
of the New Testament, which are no less than 
twenty- seven distinct compositions, of several dif- 
ferent kinds, written apparently at considerable 
intervals of time from each other, and which have 
come down to us as the works of no less than eight 
different authors. Infidels may reasonably be called 
upon to explain how, if Christianity be the invention 
of man, the Christian Scriptures, the production of 
uninspired men, it comes to pass that they differ so 
materially from all other religions invented by man, 
and all pretended revelations put forward by man. 
And when they ask, is it likely that Christianity 
came from God ? they may be fairly met with the 



350 THOUGHTS AND AFOPHTHEGM3. 

question , is it likely that Christianity came from 
man ? And the latter is much the fairer and more 
rational kind of enquiry, because we are much better 
able to judge what might reasonably be expected 
from man than from God. For human nature is our 
own nature, "but God's ways are not as our ways, 
nor his thoughts like our thoughts." It is much 
safer, consequently, to argue that Christianity did 
not come from man, because it is not such as might 
reasonably be expected from man, than to argue 
that it did not come from God, because it seems to us 
not such in all respects as the Deity would be likely 
to deliver to us. 

The dependence of the unlearned on the learned 
for translations of Scripture, is very far from amount- 
ing to a submissive reliance on their word, for all 
that Scripture contains and for the very existence of 
the Sacred Books. On the contrary, the known ex- 
istence of several distinct, and even rival, versions 
of the Scriptures into English and many other mo- 
dern languages, all substantially agreeing where 
there could not have been any concert, — all, even 
the most imperfect, exhibiting all the main facts and 
doctrines of our religion, — this affords to the un- 
learned reader a perfectly good ground for his accep- 
tance of that religion, and a ground quite indepen- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 351 

dent of any implicit reliance on the good faith and 
on the wisdom of the translators. All these trans- 
lations, in short, are in the condition of witnesses 
placed in a witness-box in a court of justice ; ex- 
amined and cross-examined by friends and enemies, 
and brought face to face with each other, so as to 
make it certain that any falsehood or mistake will 
be brought to light. Thus the strongest possible 
evidence of the general fidelity and trustworthiness 
of the translations of the Bible which they read, is 
afforded to unlearned Christians in a free country, 
where, every man being allowed to publish his sen- 
timents on religious matters, any attempt to palm off 
a false translation of the Scriptures, would be imme- 
diately detected and exposed. It is just the same 
sort of evidence as that on which you believe that 
the earth is round, or that there is such a city as 
Paris, though you may have never been at Paris, 
nor ever sailed round the world. 

The prevalence of figurative language in Sacred 
Writers, may be regarded as something exhibiting 
marks of design. It is a remarkable circumstance, 
that a figurative style is perfectly retained in trans- 
lation, in which every other excellence of expression 
is liable to be lost. It may be said with truth, that 
the book most necessary to translate into every 



352 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

language is chiefly characterized by that kind of 
excellence in diction which is least impaired by 
translation. 

In the Scriptures we have, as it were, a lasting 
picture of the Spirit of Truth, which we must con- 
sult in order that we may recognize Him, and reject 
false appearances. 

It is not in the Holy Scriptures alone that the 
Holy Ghost is present with the Church ; but it is by 
them, as a test, that his presence is in each case to 
be known. Whatever suggests to us anything not 
agreeable to God's written word, we may be sure is 
not from Him. 

He who studies the Scriptures is consulting the 
Spirit of Truth ; and if he would hope for His aid, 
must remember this, and search honestly and ear- 
nestly for the truth. 

All Scripture is in itself invulnerable ; and they 
who attack it, do but dash themselves to pieces 
against a rock. 

Christian conduct must be founded on Faith — a 
faith drawn from the Scriptures ; supported by Hope 



MISCELLANEOUS. 353 

—a hope based on the Scriptures ; and guided by 
Charity- — a charity learned from the Scriptures. 

The Scriptures venerated, yet not used, are no 
longer like the daily shower of manna to supply 
daily wants, but the pot of manna stored up with 
reverent care in the ark, as a curiosity. 

He who should think to make a voyage in safety, 
hj having on board the ship a chart of the coasts he 
was to pass, shut up in a chest and never consulted, 
or, if taken out, merely glanced at, without any at- 
tempt to understand it, or to steer his course by it, 
would not be more a madman or an idiot than is the 
possessor of a Bible that he never reads, or reads at 
certain stated times, without endeavouring to learn 
anything from it, or to apply it to his own improve- 
ment. To such, the words of Scripture, whether 
in a strange language, or in his own, are no more 
than empty sounds, or mere black marks on w r hite 
paper. 

The stream of religious knowledge should be con- 
tinually traced up to the pure fountain-head, the 
living waters of the Scriptures. 

The admission of the necessity of human teaching, 

A A 



354 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

and the deference due to the judgment of the learned 
and pious, is quite consistent with the demand of 
Scripture proof. A town clock is of excellent use in 
making publicly known with authority the correct 
time — making it known to many who, perhaps, at 
no time, and certainly not at all times, would find 
it convenient to verify its correctness for themselves. 
And yet it is clear, that one who maintained the 
great use and importance of having such a clock, 
would not be in the least inconsistent, if he also 
maintained that it might possibly go astray, and if 
he inculcated the necessity of frequently comparing 
it with, and regulating it by, the dial which receives 
its light from heaven. 

Offering to the people proof of doctrines from the 
works of the Fathers — works mostly untranslated, 
and far too voluminous for above one person in a 
hundred thousand to master — is something like offer- 
ing to pay a large bill of exchange in farthings, 
which, you know, it would be intolerably trouble- 
some to count or carry. 

By "ancient" some persons understand what be- 
longs to the first three centuries of the Christian era ; 
some, the first four ; some, seven ; — so arbitrary 
and uncertain is the standard by which some, who 



MISCELLANEOUS, 355 

tell us that we are bound to seek for a distinct au- 
thoritative sanction in some ancient writings, some 
tradition, would persuade us to try questions on which 
they, at the same time, teach us to believe our 
Christian Faith and Christian Hope are staked. 

" Scire velim, pretium chartis quotus arroget annus ; 

Est vetus atque probus, centum qui perfecit annos. 
Quid ? qui deperiit minor uno mense vel anno, 
Inter quos referendus erit ? veterisne ?" . . . 

Horace, Epist., i., b. 2. 

To interpret the less known by the better known 
is reasonable ; but to reverse the process, as is done 
in interpreting the Scriptures by the writings of the 
Ancient Fathers, is as if a naturalist should take a 
fossil elephant as a standard by which to correct and 
modify the description of the animal now existing 
among us. 

The tendency to teach for doctrines the command- 
ments of men, and to acquiesce in such teachings, 
is not the effect, but the cause, of their being taken 
for the commandments of God. 

The implicit deference due to the declarations and 
precepts of Holy Scripture, is due to nothing else. 

a a2 



356 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

Tradition is not the interpreter of Scripture, but 
Scripture is the interpreter of tradition. What has 
come down to us for tradition, if agreeable to Scrip- 
ture, is to be received ; if opposed to it, to be re- 
jected ; if neither, is to be left in uncertainty. 

It is a foolish thing to say that tradition is to be 
held to, rather than Scripture, because tradition was 
before Scripture; since Scripture (that is, written 
records ) # were used on purpose, after tradition had 
been tried, to guard against the uncertainties of 
mere tradition. Thus Luke tells. Theophilus that 
he had w r ritten an account of our Lord's life and 
teaching, that Theophilus u might know the certainty 
(the exact state of the case) of those things wherein 
he had been instructed." And John and Paul, upon 
two occasions (John xxi. 23 ; 2 Thess. ii. 1 — 5), 
correct false reports (that is, traditions), which had 
gone abroad among Christians even in their own day. 

To believe that the Apostles would leave the 
essentials of Christianity to be collected from in- 
cidental allusions, or from doubtful traditions quite 
inaccessible to the generality of Christians, and 
about which the learned few are far from being 
agreed, is surely not to shew reverence for them, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 357 

either as inspired servants of God, or even as men 
of ordinary good sense. 

To found faith on an appeal to tradition, is to base 
it on the report of a report of a report of a report 

Discussions, one sometimes meets with, as to the 
"credibility of tradition" generally, are as idle as 
Hume's respecting the credit due to testimony. One 
might as well inquire, "What degree of regard 
should be paid to books ?" as common sense would 
dictate in reply, "What book?" so also, "Whose 
testimony ? what tradition ?" As each particular 
testimony and each particular book, just so, should 
each alleged tradition be examined on its own merits. 

Many defend oral tradition on the ground that we 
have the Scriptures themselves by tradition. Would 
they think that because they might trust servants to 
deliver a letter, however long or important, therefore 
they might trust them to deliver its contents by 
word of mouth in a message? A footman brings 
you a letter from a friend, upon whose word you 
can perfectly rely, giving an account of something 
that has happened to himself, and the exact account 
of which you are greatly concerned to know. While 
you are reading and answering the letter, the foot- 






358 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 



man goes into the kitchen, and there gives your 
cook an account of the same thing ; which, he says, 
he overheard the upper- servants at home talking 
over, as related to them by the valet, who said he 
had it from your friend's son's own lips. 

The distinction attempted to be set up between 
co-ordinate and subordinate tradition is but a falla- 
cious one ; the real difference being only that every 
usurped and arbitrary power is usually exercised 
with comparative leniency at first Let but the prin- 
ciple which is common to both systems be established, 
and the one may easily be made to answer all the 
purposes of the other. 

Tradition and Church Interpretation are made by 
a certain system, subordinate to, and dependent on, 
Scripture, much as some parasite plants are de- 
pendent on the tree, that supports them, gradually 
overspreading it with their own foliage, till by little 
and little they weaken and completely smother it. 

"Miraturque novas frondes, et non sua poma." 

As a man directed to take two medicines, as being 
both essential for his health, would most likely not 
take the pains to analyze the one, when it was out 
of his power to analyze the other : but would rather 



MISCELLANEOUS. 359 

take his physician's word for both, — or at once re- 
ject both : so those, who blindly and uninquiringly 
trust to a human spiritual guide, will be induced to 
take his word for everything alike. 

Some advocates of authoritative tradition who, 
while loudly proclaiming that they do not require 
assent to anything that may not be proved by Scrip- 
ture, would yet have us receive a point of faith oh 
their word and on their conviction that it is Scrip- 
tural, act in the same way, and produce the same 
effect, that a Government would do that should 
make a paper currency legal tender, and require 
belief of the existence and amount of the represented 
bullion or land, and of its ability to produce it, not 
on the test of payment demanded and obtained, but 
on its own word — the word of the very Government 
issuing this paper currency ; which thus made incon- 
vertible would supersede the precious metals, till 
they gradually disappear and leave nothing but a 
profusion of worthless paper. 

The Christian minister should ever remember, 
that the Apostles and Evangelists can teach Chris- 
tianity better than he can, and carefully lead his 
flock to the study of their writings. He should in- 
struct them, to the best of his ability, out of the 



360 THOUGHTS AXD APOPHTHEGMS, 

Scriptures. He should teach them to search the 
Scriptures for themselves to see " whether those 
things be so," which they shall have heard from 
him ; and should warn them to trust in God, and 
not to transfer their allegiance to any uninspired 
man, and should caution them against being led 
away, by bold assertions and arrogant pretensions, 
into those corruptions of Gospel truth, which will 
always, from time to time, be found arising within 
the Church. So shall they be enabled to " take up 
the serpents" they will meet with, and " if they 
drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them." 

The fact that the Scriptures contain things hard 
to be understood, is no reason for laying them aside, 
but a very strong one for taking the more pains to 
understand them. 

If the Scriptures could properly be understood 
without any trouble, and could not be perverted to 
bad purposes, they would be extremely unlike the 
rest of God's gifts. 

As the laws of nature are in themselves invariable, 
but yet are sometimes imperfectly known and some- 
times mistaken by natural philosophers, so the Scrip- 
tures are intrinsically infallible, but do not impart 



MISCELLANEOUS. 361 

infallibility to the student of them. To complain of 
this, — to reject or undervalue the revelation God has 
bestowed, urging that it is no revelation to us, or 
an insufficient one, because unerring certainty is not 
bestowed also — because we are required to exercise 
patient diligence, and watchfulness, and candour, 
and humble self- distrust, — this would be as unreason- 
able as to disparage and reject the bountiful gift of 
eye- sight, because men's eyes have sometimes de- 
ceived them ; — because men have mistaken a picture 
for the object imitated, or a mirage of the desert for 
a lake ; and have fancied they had the evidence of 
sight for the sun's motion ; and to infer from all this 
that we ought to blind ourselves, and be led hence- 
forth by some guide, who pretends to be himself not 
liable to such deceptions. 

Peter's implied censure of those who are unlearned 
(that is, ill acquainted with truths revealed in the 
Bible), and, as will naturally follow, "unstable," 
and likely to be " blown about with every wind of 
doctrine," should operate as a caution, not against 
the study of the Scriptures, but against the faults 
which would lead us to wrest them to our destruction. 

Any suggestion or persuasion that the Scriptures 
need not be read, or that the right interpretation of 



362 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

them requires no- diligent care, and that we have 
such an infallible guide within us, or that some 
boastful pretender has such, as does away the neces- 
sity of candid, humble, patient study of the Bible, 
or that we are at liberty to receive, or reject, or alter 
the sense of each passage, in conformity with what 
seems to our minds reasonable or not, in the same 
manner as when we are reading the work of any 
human writer; every such suggestion comes from 
the proud and disobedient spirit who would lead us 
to imitate his presumptuous rebellion. Faith in 
ourselves, faith in the pretensions of man, are the 
very opposite to Christian faith, which is faith in 
God only. 

If we receive the heavenly light of God's Word, 
through the discoloured medium of our own preju- 
dices and infirmities, its rays will give an unnatural 
tinge to everything on which they are shed, con- 
firming, it may be, preconceived notions, or leading 
to false conclusions. 

To find in a passage of Scripture an argument in 
favour of a doctrine, is a very different thing from 
finding jn it a revelation of the doctrine. 

We should search the Scriptures, not to defend 



MISCELLANEOUS. 363 

our opinions, but to form them ; not merely for 
argument but for truth. 

An erroneous doctrine may sometimes spring from 
the misinterpretation of a text of Scripture, oftener 
the misinterpretation from the doctrine. 

It is one thing to desire to have Scripture on our 
side, and another thing to desire to be on the side of 
Scripture. 

The passages quoted from Scripture in behalf of 
some practice, are often excuses, and not reasons 
for it. 

Many and various are the objections (some of 
them more or less plausible, and others very weak), 
that have been brought — on grounds of science, or 
supposed science — against the Mosaic accounts of 
the creation, of the state of the early world, and of 
the flood. And when answering these objections, it 
is important to lay down the principles on which 
either the Bible, or any other writing or speech, 
ought to be studied and understood, namely, with a 
reference to the object proposed by the writer or 
speaker. For example, if we bid any one proceed 
in a straight line from one place to another, and to 



364 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

take care to arrive before the sun goes down, he will 
rightly and fully understand us in reference to the 
practical object which alone we had in view. Now 
we know that there cannot really be a straight line 
on the surface of the earth ; and that the sun does 
not really go down, but whether the other party 
knows all this or not, matters nothing to our present 
object, which was not to teach mathematics or astro- 
nomy, but to make him conform to our directions, 
which are equally intelligible to the learned and the 
unlearned. 

Now the object of the Scripture revelation is to 
teach men not astronomy, or geology, or any other 
physical science, but Religion. 

In what relates to Divine Revelations, reason 
should be confined to those two points : — 1st, to judge 
of the grounds on which any professed revelation 
should be received or rejected, as being "from heaven 
or of men;" and, 2ndly, to determine what it is 
that we are enabled and required to learn from the 
revelation which God has actually given. 

Men are too apt to treat Scripture as the poor 
dupes of Medea did their aged parent, in hopes of 
making him come out of the cauldron with increased 
vigour. They chop it up into separate texts, and 



MISCELLANEOUS. 365 

stew it with the poisonous weeds of human specula- 
tions, in hopes of their producing a complete and 
beautiful body of divinity. 

The object of revelation is to teach religion, pro- 
perly so called, which does not consist in the know- 
ledge of human nature in itself, or of the divine 
nature in itself, but in the knowledge — and the 
practical application of the knowledge — of God in 
relation to man, and man in relation to God. To go 
beyond this, is to teach " philosophy and vain deceit, 
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of 
the world and not after Christ.' ' 

It is an important general rule in interpreting 
Scripture, that the most practical interpretation is 
ever likely to be the truest. In the precepts as 
well as the parables of Scripture, it is to the practical 
result that the attention is intended to be directed. 
For instance, this is the case even in the precept to 
"love. thy neighbour as thyself;" for it is only 
figuratively that a man is said to love himself ; the 
regard which he has for his own happiness being not 
in degree merely, but in kind very different from 
any benevolent affections towards another ; but the 
force of the precept is, that as we diligently seek 
to promote our own welfare without having any fur- 



366 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

ther object in view, so we ought also diligently 
to promote the welfare of others, looking to nothing 
beyond. And this is practically sufficient. 

Amid all our ignorance and weakness what we 
best know is our duty. 

As the peasant who may be utterly ignorant 
respecting the progress of germination in the seed 
which he sows, the growth of the plant and its 
fructification, may yet have practical knowledge 
sufficient to enable him to prepare the soil for the 
seed, to raise the corn, and to gather in the harvest ; 
or as the ancient mariners steered their course in 
safety by those heavenly bodies whose magnitude, 
and distance, and motions they so imperfectly under- 
stood ; so also may the Word of God be a lantern 
to our steps, and " a light unto our path," even 
though we may have but a very imperfect under- 
standing of the divine dispensation. 

If none of the doctrines necessary to be revealed 
for other practical purposes, were of sufficiently 
mysterious character to serve also for trials of faith, 
humility, and candour, in assenting to them on 
sufficient grounds, (a purpose which, as producing 
moral results, may be fairly reckoned a worthy and 



MISCELLANEOUS. 367 

fit purpose, and a practical one,) we might then, 
perhaps, expect that some things should be proposed 
to our belief, solely and singly for this latter purpose. 
But if both objects can be fully accomplished by the 
same revelation — if our faith be sufficiently tried by 
the admission of such mysterious doctrines as are 
important for other practical ends also — then the 
revelation of any further mysteries, which lead to 
no such practical end, is the less necessary, and 
consequently the less to be expected. So that an 
exclusively practical character, is a probable mark 
of a true revelation. 

All pretended revelations which have been the 
basis of distinct religions, and all corruptions of 
Christianity, all systems of religion — whether Pagan 
or Mahomedan, and all modifications of our own, 
however dissimilar they may be in other respects, 
however they may differ in the greater or less ab- 
surdity, or the greater or less immorality of their 
fables, legends and traditions; in the number of 
them, or the degree of credit they obtain — all agree 
in this one general characteristic, the general want 
of reference to human conduct, and in the leading 
or, at least, one leading, object being to gratify 
human curiosity, to minister to that desire of know- 
ledge for its own sake without any reference to its 



368 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

utility, which is obviously a part of our nature. An 
ancient writer who well understood human nature, 
justly observes that things hidden, and things ad- 
mirable, are what men especially covet to know. 
Now nothing can be more hidden, nothing more ad- 
mirable than the nature and the works of God. The 
origin and constitution of the world we inhabit — of 
man himself, the nature of angels and of various 
orders of beings which may exist, superior to man, — 
and of the Supreme Being Himself ; each of these 
subjects suggests innumerable matters of inquiry 
whose grandeur fills the most exalted, and whose 
difficulty baffles the most intelligent mind. Again, 
nothing could have been more deeply interesting 
than minute details of everything relating to the life 
of our great Master, however little connected with 
his ministry — such as his personal appearance, his 
domestic habits, and all particulars relative to his 
parents. Is it not then natural, that men should 
eagerly seek for some superhuman means of infor- 
mation on subjects so interesting to their curiosity, 
and so much beyond their unaided powers ? And is 
it not consequently to be expected, that both the 
devices of an impostor, and the visions of an enthu- 
siast should abound in food for this curiosity ? What 
then is in this respect the character of the Christian 
revelation ? It stands distinguished from all other 



MISCELLANEOUS. 369 

religions, and even from all modifications of itself in 
its exclusively practical character, and its omission 
of everything that would serve merely to pamper 
vain curiosity. We have in the contrast thus pre- 
sented in the wisdom and dignified simplicity of the 
Scriptures with the idle and arrogant pretensions of 
human fraud and folly, a plain proof that our Scrip- 
tures were not of man's devising, that no impostor 
would, and no enthusiast could, have wTitten them. 
Praised be the superhuman wisdom that has thus 
proved the divine origin of the Scriptures ! for what 
cannot have come from man must have come from 
God. 

When Paul describes the Gospel as being "to the 
Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolish- 
ness/ ' he supplies a practical rule wherewith to test 
any representation of it. Whenever, then, such a 
representation of Christianity is made, as would not 
have been a " stumbling-block to the Jews," or such 
as w r ould not have been "foolishness to the Greeks," 
it may at once be concluded that this cannot be the 
Gospel which Paul preached. 

He who would be of those who (in the words of 
the apostle Peter) " desire as new born babes the 
sincere (unadulterated) milk of the Word, that they 

B B 



370 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

may grow thereby :" he who would learn the very 
Gospel which the apostles taught, just as it was 
received by their hearers, must in heart and spirit 
accompany the simple shepherds in their visit to 
Bethlehem to u see," not what human philosophy 
has devised, but — what u the Lord hath made known 
unto us." 

Doctrines, whether true or false, that are not re- 
vealed in Scripture can constitute no part of the 
Christian faith 5 and those who teach them as Gos- 
pel truths are answerable for the effects produced, 
not only on those who adopt the opinions, but also 
on those who reject them. 

The question concerning the Origin of Evil is left 
by the Scriptures just where they found it. They 
neither introduce the difficulty, as some weak oppo- 
nents contend, nor account for it, as is imagined by 
some not less weak advocates ; who having under- 
taken to explain it, and having, perhaps, satisfied 
themselves and others that they have done so, are 
sure to be met by the very same difficulty re- appear- 
ing in some different form ; like a resistless stream, 
which when one of its channels is dammed up, im- 
mediately forces its way through another. He who 
professes to account for the existence of Evil by 



MISCELLANEOUS. 371 

tracing it up to the first evil recorded as occurring, 
would have no reason to deride the absurdity of an 
atheist who should profess to account for the origin 
of the human race, by simply tracing them up to the 
first pair. 

It is a folly to regard the difficulty as to the Origin 
of Evil in the light of an objection, either to our 
religion or to any other ; since it would lie equally 
against all, as indeed it does against any system of 
philosophy likewise ; for the ancient heathen were as 
much perplexed with doubts as to the origin of evil 
as we are. Even atheism does not lessen, it only 
alters, the difficulty ; for as the believer in a God 
cannot account for the existence of evil, so the be- 
liever in no God cannot account for the existence of 
good ; or, indeed, for anything at all that bears 
marks of rational design. 

The Bible acts the part of a judicious physician, 
who, instead of entertaining his patients with a long 
and curious dissertation on the nature and origin of 
their disease, employs himself in actively adminis- 
tering remedies, and teaching them how to avoid 
them. Just so the Apostle Paul does not attempt to 
explain, e. g., to the Athenians the cause of the 
principal evil, the state of enmity against God, and 

be 2 



372 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

exposure to divine displeasure, but proceeds at once 
to the practical point of describing the evil, and 
offering the cure. — "The times of this ignorance 
God winked at ; but now commandeth all men every- 
where to repent." 

To distort the plain meaning of Scripture, for the 
sake of defending religion against unsound objections, 
is to expose it to more powerful ones, which we have 
left ourselves without the means of answering. 

The true sense of each word is that which is under- 
stood by it; and as a reader will naturally conclude 
a writer's meaning to be just what his words express 
in their simple, ordinary, and obvious sense, (except 
when some other passage from the same writer is 
produced, shewing that his opinion was something 
different,) so, in interpreting Scripture, we are not 
to consider what sense the words can be brought to 
bear, but what sense they actually bore to the very 
hearers of Christ and his apostles, which we may be 
sure was that which they meant to convey, as being 
that in which they knew that the hearers understood 
them. 

The interpretation of any particular word occur- 
ring in Scripture, must not be dwelt upon so as to 



MISCELLANEOUS. 373 

imply that each term must have, like one of the tech- 
nical terms of any science, exactly the same meaning 
in every passage where it is employed. The works 
of the Sacred Writers are popular, not scientific. 

What was to the early Christians of plain common 
sense and moderate education, the natural and un- 
strained sense of the writings and discourses of the 
Apostles and Evangelists, whose works have come 
down to us, as what we should seek to understand 
and to believe, if we would have our faith the same 
as theirs. If later Christians had been satisfied 
humbly to pursue this study, instead of human 
theories ; if Christian instructors had sought to fit 
themselves to explain, not those things concerning 
God which the Scriptures omit, but what they con- 
tain, — not what God has thought fit to keep secret, 
but what He has revealed, — there would have been 
less of what is reckoned abstruse theology, but more 
of pure Christian faith. Had they all thus honestly 
relied on Scripture, the mysterious doctrines of our 
religion would have been received in Christian sim- 
plicity, as Scripture reveals them, without any 
farther definitions and explanations than Scripture 
itself supplies ; and this would have been " able to 
make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is 
in Christ Jesus." But for vain philosophical systems 



374 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

of divinity, heresies would, probably, not have been 
multiplied as tbey have been. This, at least, is 
certain, that as scientific theories and technical 
phraseology gained ground, party animosity raged 
the more violently. Those who lose sight of the 
real character and design of the Christian revela- 
tion, generally lose the mild, patient, and forbear- 
ing spirit of the Gospel. " The servant of the Lord," 
says the Apostle, "must not strive, but be gentle 
unto all men, in meekness instructing those that 
oppose themselves." 

t 
"Whenever we approach, in imagination, the 

mighty Lord of all things, humbled, and become an 
infant lying in the manger, we should be reminded 
to " desire the sincere milk of the Word, that we 
may grow thereby ;" and that, receiving " the king- 
dom of heaven as a little child," with a pure, and 
humble, and teachable mind, we may, at his second 
coming to judge the world, be found an acceptable 
people in his sight. 

So limited are our faculties for comprehending 
things as they are in themselves, that did not the 
Scriptures present dim and faint pictures of them, 
they could not otherwise be revealed at all. The 
"light which no man can approach unto," if pre- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 375 

sented, in unmitigated blaze, to eyes too weak to 
endure it, would blind instead of enlightening ; we 
now " see by means of the reflection of a glass/' 
what we could not otherwise see at all. 

As analogy is the resemblance of ratios (or rela- 
tions), two things may be connected by analogy, 
though they have in themselves no resemblance ; thus 
as a sweet taste gratifies the palate, so does a sweet 
sound gratify the ear, and hence the same word, 
"sweet," is applied to both, though no flavour can 
resemble a sound in itself. To bear this in mind 
would serve to guard us against two very common 
errors in the interpretation of the analogical language 
of Scripture. 1. The error of supposing the things 
themselves to be similar, from their bearing similar 
relations to other things. 2. The still more common 
error of supposing the analogy to extend further than 
it does, or to be more complete than it really is, from 
not considering in what the analogy in each case 
consists. 

The only truth essential in a Parable, is the truth 
of the moral or doctrine contained in it. 

Parables commonly use the analogy the most 
remote in all points but the one to be illustrated, on 



376 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

purpose to guard against following out analogy too 
far ; so unjust judge, unjust steward, unkind neigh- 
bour, asked to lend three loaves. 

The picture and image of heavenly things, fur- 
nished by the analogical language and the types and 
figures of revelation, cannot in all points completely 
correspond with the original, any more than a pic- 
ture can, in all respects, resemble the solid body 
which it is designed to imitate. 

To interpret too literally the analogical expres- 
sions with which Scripture teaches, just as a blind 
man is instructed about sight and the objects of sight 
by comparing them with the other senses and their 
objects, is as absurd as to dissect a statue in order 
to find out what the inside of a man is like. 

When Paul says, respecting the glorified state, 
u whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away,' 7 
we might have expected him, perhaps, to promise 
rather an increase of our knowledge ; but it appeared 
to him, probably, that the knowledge we now pos- 
sess concerning several points not fully compre- 
hensible to us, is so utterly different in kind from 
that which is reserved for us, that the change 
might more properly be called an entire vanishing 



MISCELLANEOUS. 377 

of the notions we are at present able to form, and 
a substitution of others in their place; just as the 
analogical notions of seeing a blind man had formed, 
would, on his obtaining sight, fade away, and be 
succeeded by others incomparably more direct and 
clear. 

The apparent contradictions in the doctrinal and 
moral precepts of Scripture are not to be regarded 
merely as difficulties to be surmounted, but as a 
mode of instruction peculiar to it — the employing 
of different analogies, each, severally, serving to 
correct the other, and all, jointly, conveying a notion 
as nearly as possible approaching the reality. 

The liability, so prevalent in all men, to imagine 
that a literal obedience to certain definite precepts is 
all that is required, is guarded against by the mode 
of conveying moral instruction adopted by our Lord. 
First, the precepts are often apparently contradictory 
to each other ; secondly, they are often such that a 
literal compliance would be, in many cases, either 
impossible, or at least extravagant and irrational: 
and thirdly, this literal compliance would, in many 
instances, amount to so insignificant a point of duty, 
as could not be supposed deserving of a distinct in- 
culcation for its own sake. Men are thus thrown on 



378 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

the application of a general principle to each parti- 
cular case; for a literal compliance with precepts 
which, literally taken, are inconsistent, would be im- 
possible ; where that literal compliance would be 
wrong or absurd, it is manifest it could not be in- 
tended ; where it would be trifling, it is manifest 
that it cannot be all that is intended. 

Two apparently opposite passages of Scripture 
may together enable us to direct our faith or our 
practice aright, as in mechanics, the combined effect 
of several impulses in various directions will propel 
a body in the direction required. 

When the Mosaic code was abolished, the Lord 
and His Apostles did not substitute in its place any 
other system of rules ; they laid down Christian 
principles ; they sought to implant Christian disposi- 
tions. And this is the more remarkable, inasmuch, 
as we may be sure, from the nature of Man, that 
precise regulations, even though somewhat tedious 
to learn and burdensome to observe, would have 
been highly acceptable to their converts. It is much 
more agreeable to the natural Man (though at first 
sight the contrary might be supposed) to have a 
complete system of laws laid down, which are to be 
observed according to the letter, not to the spirit, — 



MISCELLANEOUS. 379 

and which, as long as a man adheres to them, afford 
both a consolatory assurance of safety, and an un- 
restrained liberty as to every point not determined 
by them, — than to be left to his own discretion, no 
restraint being so irksome to him as this, while still 
required to regulate his conduct according to certain 
principles, and to steer his course through the in- 
tricate channels of life, with an incessant watchful- 
ness and studious exercise of his moral judgment. 

Accordingly, most, if not all systems of Man's 
devising (whether corruptions of Christianity, or 
built on any other foundation) will be found, even 
in what appear their most rigid enactments, to be 
accommodated to this tendency of the human heart ; 
when Mahomet, for instance, enjoined on his disci- 
ples a strict fast during a certain period, and an 
entire abstinence from wine and from games of 
chance, and the devotion of a precise portion of 
their property to the poor, leaving them at liberty, 
generally, to follow their own sensual and worldly 
inclinations, he imposed a far less severe task on 
them than if he had required them constantly to 
control their appetites and passions, to repress covet- 
ousness, and to be uniformly temperate, charitable, 
and heavenly-minded. And had Paul been (as a 
false teacher always will be) disposed to comply with 
the expectations and wishes which his disciples 



380 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

would naturally form, he would doubtless have re- 
ferred them to some part of the Mosaic Law as their 
standard of morality, or would have substituted 
some other system of rules in its place. Indeed, 
there is strong reason to think (especially from what 
we find in 1st Corinthians) that Paul had been 
applied to for more precise rules than he was 
willing to give. After such brief directions as the 
occasion rendered indispensable, he breaks off into 
exhortations to "use this world as not abusing it;" 
and speedily recurs to the general description of the 
Christian character, and the inculcation of Christian 
principles. He will not be induced to enter into 
minute details of things forbidden and permitted, — ; 
enjoined and dispensed with ; and even when most 
occupied in repelling the suspicions that Gospel- 
liberty exempts the Christian from moral obligation, 
instead of retaining or framing anew any system of 
prohibitions and injunctions, he urges upon his 
hearers the very consideration of their being exempt 
from any such childish trammels, as a reason for 
their aiming at a more perfect holiness of life, on 
purer and more generous motives ; u Sin," he says, 
" shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not 
under the law, but under grace ;" and he perpetually 
incites them to walk " worthy of their vocation/' on 
the ground of their being " bought with a price/' 



MISCELLANEOUS. 381 

and bound to " live unto Him who died for them ;" 
— " as risen with Christ " to a new life of holiness, — 
exhorted to " set their 1 affections on things above, 
not on things on the earth;" — as "living sacrifices" 
to God ; — as " the temple of the Holy Ghost/ 7 
called upon to keep God's dwelling-place undefiled, 
and to abound in all " the fruits of the Spirit," and 
as "being delivered from the Law, that we should 
serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in the old- 
ness of the letter." These, and such as these, are 
the sublime principles of morality laid down by 
Paul, as everywhere in Scripture, into a conformity 
with which the Christian is required to fashion his 
heart and his life, through that most effectual aid 
and guidance of the Spirit of Truth, who will enable 
us daily to profit by the teaching of the Word of 
Truth, to follow the example of Christ, and to purify 
ourselves even as He is pure ; that " when He shall 
appear, we may be made like unto Him, and may 
behold Him as He is." 

There are two things, each of which he will sel- 
dom fail to discover who seeks for it in earnest ; the 
one, the knowledge of what he ought to do ; and the 
other, a plausible pretext for doing what he likes. 
The latter of these the carnally- minded might find 
in any set of precepts that could have been framed, 



382 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

the former the spiritually- minded will not fail to ob- 
tain in the Gospel. 

Wisely designed for the spiritual exercise and 
training of the Christian's mind as was the absence 
in the New Testament of a precise code of laws and 
the substitution of sublime principles, a not less 
striking instance of divine wisdom and goodness is 
presented to us in the absence of all formularies — 
the total omission of Liturgies, Catechisms and Creeds, 
Yet all these things we are sure must have existed. 
Now this omission is a fact which will appear the 
more remarkable, humanly speaking, the more the 
subject is considered. It is on all natural principles 
unaccountable, and, indeed, incredible, that none of 
the Apostles should have committed them to writing, 
or any of their numerous fellow-labourers, hundreds 
of whom must have been quite competent to the 
task, which would have been merely to write down 
what they heard, and once written they would be 
eagerly read, carefully preserved, and copied. Yet, 
what would have been seemingly so natural and so 
easy to do was done hj no one. This or that indi- 
vidual might have been prevented from doing so by 
accidental circumstances ; but that every one of some 
hundreds should have been so prevented amounts to 
a complete moral impossibility. And as the drawing 



MISCELLANEOUS. 383 

up of such records would have naturally occurred to 
men of any nation, situated as the Apostles and their 
companions were, so it seems doubly strange that 
this should not have occurred to Jews, — to men 
brought up under that law which prescribed, with 
such minute exactness, all the ceremonials of their 
worship, all the articles of their belief, and all the 
rules they were to observe. 

There is no mode of explaining such an omission, 
except by concluding that the apostles and their at- 
tendants were super naturally restrained from drawing 
up any such canons, liturgies, or creeds. And this 
conclusion is confirmed by the fact, that soon after the 
age of inspiration, and when men were left to act on 
their own judgment, they did draw up such Formula- 
ries, several of which have come down to us. We have, 
therefore, in this omission a Monument of a Miracle. 
The Christian Scriptures are in themselves a proof of 
their having been composed under superhuman guid- 
ance ; since they do not contain what we may be 
sure they would have contained, had the writers 
been left to themselves. Every argument against 
the human origin of the Christian Scriptures is an 
argument in favour of their divine origin. 

And the argument is complete, even though we 
should be quite unable to perceive the reasons for 
this ordinance of Providence : but it is not difficult 



384 THOUGHTS AXD APOPHTHEGMS. 

to discern the superhuman wisdom of the course 
adopted. We may be sure that, had the Apostles or 
their attendants recorded the particulars of their own 
worship, their forms of prayer, and their ecclesiasti- 
cal regulations, these would all have been regarded 
as parts of Scripture : and even had they been ac- 
companied by the most express declaration of the 
lawfulness of altering or laying aside any of them, 
they would have been, in practice, most scrupulously 
retained, however inappropriate through changes of 
manners, tastes, and local and temporary circum- 
stances, they might have become. The Jewish 
ritual, designed for one Nation and Country, and 
intended to be of temporary duration, was fixed and 
accurately prescribed : the same Divine Wisdom rfrom 
which both dispensations proceeded, having designed 
Christianity for all nations and ages, left these points 
to be determined according to the principles which 
had been distinctly laid down by divine authority ; 
while the application of those principles in particu- 
lar cases was left (as is the case with our moral con- 
duct also) to the responsible judgment of Man. 

With regard to Catechisms, again, nearly the same 
reasons will hold good. For though the Christian 
religion is fundamentally " the same yesterday, to- 
day, and for ever," yet as it is impossible that 
any one mode of introducing its truths can be uni- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 385 

versally appropriate, they would have been like pre- 
cise directions for the cultivation of some plant, 
admirably adapted to some particular soil and climate, 
but inapplicable in those of a contrary description. 
And as to Creeds or Confessions of faith, these are 
(not as some regard them, summaries of the most 
intrinsically important points of Christian doctrine, 
but) such compendiums as, standing opposed to the 
particular heresies in each age and country respec- 
tively, serve to test the professed orthodoxy of those 
who adopt them. And, therefore, had the apostles 
left Creeds or Symbols, they would have stood, like 
ancient sea walls, built to repel the encroachments of 
the waves, and still scrupulously kept in repair, when 
perhaps the sea had retired from them many miles, 
and was encroaching on some different part of the 
coast. 

But supposing such a summary of Gospel truths 
had been drawn up and contrived with such exquisite 
skill as to be sufficient and well adapted for all, of 
every age and country, what would have been the 
result of its being provided in Scripture? Both would 
have been regarded, indeed, as of divine authority ; 
but the Compendium, as the fused and purified metal, 
the other as the mine containing the crude ore. And 
the Compendium itself, being not, like the existing 
Scriptures, that/rom which the faith is to be learned, 

c c 



386 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

but the very thing to he learned, would have ren- 
dered needless the laborious searching of the rest of 
Scripture to ascertain its agreement with a human 
exposition of the faith ; and, consequently, would 
have left no room for that excitement of the best 
feelings, and that improvement of the heart, which 
are the natural, and doubtless the designed result of 
an humble, diligent, and sincere study of the Chris- 
tian Scriptures ; and without which our orthodoxy 
would be, as it were, petrified, like the bodies of 
those animals we read of incrusted in the ice of the 
polar regions ; firm-fixed, indeed, and preserved un- 
changeable, but cold, motionless, lifeless. 

Proofs of any doctrine, obtained by a bringing 
together of passages from different, and apparently 
unconnected, parts of the sacred Volume, are far 
more important towards conviction than those derived 
from a single direct statement. Occasionally, one 
text affording the strongest confirmation of a doc- 
trine, had no force at all in that respect until com- 
pared with another, and that perhaps with a third, 
each separately incapable of bearing upon the point 
in question, but all, together, composing an indisso- 
luble argument, of so much the more force, indeed, as 
it precludes the possibility of having been inserted 
by human design. The proofs from a single text 



MISCELLANEOUS. 387 

may be compared to a piece of precious ore found on 
the surface of the ground, which we cannot be sure 
might not have been dropped by some chance tra- 
veller ; the other kind of proof, to the same ore dug 
with labour from a mine, which is, we may be con- 
fident, derived from the place where we found it. 

An instance of complex proof of doctrines from 
the collation of scattered texts of Scripture might 
be the comparison of the following passages : " All 
Scripture/ 7 says St. Paul to Timothy, "is given by 
inspiration of God" (2 Tim, iii. 15, 16), and is "able 
to make thee wise unto Salvation, through faith 
which is in Christ Jesus ;" "of which salvation," 
says St. Peter (1 Peter i. 10), "the prophets have 
enquired and searched diligently — searching what or 
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was 
in them did signify — unto whom it was revealed, 
that unto us they did minister the things which are 
now reported unto you by them that have preached 
the Gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down 
from heaven ;" and in this the apostle confirms the 
promises in St. John's Gospel (John xiv. 26 ; xv. 
26 ; xvi. 13) ; whilst in another Epistle he declares 
the inspiration of the old prophets also to have pro- 
ceeded from the Holy Ghost; "For the prophecy 
came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy 

c c 2 



388 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS, 

men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost" (2 Peter i. 21). It is only in combination 
with each other, that these passages throw light upon 
the inspiration of both the Old and New Testaments 
by the same Supreme Being : and attest, at the same 
time, the unity of the three persons in the Divine 
nature. 

How admirable do the provisions of Divine "Wis- 
dom appear, even from the slight and indistinct 
views we obtain of it ! It has supplied to us, by 
revelation, the knowledge of what we could not have 
discovered for ourselves : and it has left us to our- 
selves, precisely in those points in which it is best 
for us that we should be so left. 

The division into chapters and verses, which were 
introduced, merely for the convenience of reference, 
many hundred years after the sacred Books were 
written, are by some persons ignorantly supposed to 
be, like the chapters in modern books, the work of 
the authors themselves. And even those who do not 
fall into this mistake, are led, by their habit of at- 
tending to those divisions, unconsciously to separate 
in their minds passages which, in sense, are closely 
connected; and thus to break up, as it were, the 
sacred books into disjointed fragments, so as to ob- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 389 

scure, and often pervert, the meaning* of the writers. 
One instance, among many, is the disjoining of the 
four last verses of the nineteenth chapter of Matthew 
from the first sixteen verses of the twentieth. 

A regular paraphrase of Scripture expands every 
passage, easy or hard, nearly to the same degree : it 
applies a magnifying glass of equal power to the 
gnat and to the camel. 

Of the sacred Writers, no two write precisely 
alike. Though all of them Jews, though all taught 
one and the same Gospel, by one and the same Spirit, 
yet the variations of individual character are per- 
ceptible, even when in national character they all 
agree. 

It was requisite for the propagation of the Gospel 
in its purity, and for the edification of the infant 
Church, that the Holy Spirit should " lead the apos- 
tles into all (the) truth,' 7 and should pour out other 
supernatural gifts on other Christians ; so far there- 
fore did his influence extend. But it was not neces- 
sary that all distinction of character among Chris- 
tians should be done away, where these peculiarities 
had no evil in them ; or that similar spiritual gifts 
should be bestowed on all. Our religion w T as de- 



390 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

signed to renew indeed and ameliorate, but not to 
subvert, our nature, — to amend mankind in general, 
but not to contradict the essential principles of the 
human character, — to exalt and purify each indivi- 
dual, but not to destroy his individuality. Here, 
therefore, the diversity was both permitted, and even 
augmented. This divine work may be compared to 
that which took place " in the beginning :" " God 
saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it 
was very good " but all things were not made alike; 
the variety in the creation is infinite. 

The man who did not like details of the things 
that concerned his friends might be a philanthropist, 
but could hardly have private attachments. The 
Gospel records meet this feeling of our nature, being 
not merely historical, but strictly biographical. Brief 
as they are, they are fitted to introduce us personally 
to Him who called his disciples his " friends." 

He who is disposed to think that this or that 
transaction which we find in the Gospels, is not of 
sufficient consequence to deserve a very attentive 
study, should recollect that every one we dp find 
there is one out of a thousand — is selected by the 
writer, as being peculiarly striking, out of all that 
was said and done, during the short but most mo- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 391 

mentous period of our Lord's life on earth. We are 
to consider, not merely why such and such an oc- 
currence took place, but why it was selected, in pre- 
ference to a hundred others that were passed by. 

Our Lord's miracles may be said to be acted 
parables ; for, not only are they designed to answer 
their first and most important purpose, the proof of 
his divine authority, and the other purpose of the 
immediate relief of suffering, but they also conveyed 
some figurative representation of his character and 
office, an exhibition of some emblem or token of the 
Gospel and its effects. 

An interpretation of actions as symbolical, that is, 
as conveying an instructive meaning is (in Scripture) 
so far from being a fanciful departure from the plain 
literal sense of what we find there, that it is in fact, 
keeping to the established meaning of the language 
ordinarily employed by the sacred writers. To 
speak by significant actions, may be called a part of 
the language of the prophets and other sacred writers, 
with which, of course, the Jews were familiar. For 
instance, the mode of conveying the prophecy to 
Jeroboam; and the prophesying of Jeremiah and 
Ezekiel during the greater part of their lives more 
by symbolical actions than by words. Thus, also, 



392 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

Jesus teaches his disciples humility, by placing a 
little child in the midst of them, and by washing 
their feet ; and most of his miracles are explained 
by Him, as having an instructive meaning. 

The miracle at the marriage at Cana had, as from 
being the first miracle performed by our Lord, it 
might be expected to have, a more extensive and 
important signification than any of the rest ; — was 
not merely, like the rest, significant of some parti- 
cular doctrine, but generally expressive of His whole 
Gospel, — of the great object of His coming into the 
world. 

To perceive the symbolical character of the open- 
ing miracle of our Lord, its circumstances (remark- 
able, were it only for the minute details thought 
worthy of being recorded by writers who are, on 
the whole, so scanty and concise), must be atten- 
tively considered, together with several other circum- 
stances in the life and death of Jesus, and in the 
expression used by Himself and His Apostles relative 
to these events. 

It is to be observed that the water which our Lord 
converted into wine, was put, by his command, into 
those water-pots, which were designed for the pur- 
pose of ceremonial purification by washing, according 



MISCELLANEOUS. 393 

to the rites of the Jewish religion ; which rites, the 
Apostle Paul, when contrasting them with the real 
and efficacious purification through the sacrifice of 
Christ, calls " carnal ordinances." As Jesus might 
as easily, after having directed the servants to bring 
water in their other vessels, have converted that, at 
once, into wine, and sent it to the governor of the 
feast, he, doubtless, adopted this particular mode of 
performing the miracle, to indicate that He was come 
to substitute the Gospel for the law, — to do away the 
Old Dispensation of outward ceremonial cleansings, 
and to put in their place the true atonement and 
expiation of his great sacrifice which " taketh away 
the sins of the world." For, as the water which 
was placed in vessels intended for purification, was 
aptly chosen by Him to represent the whole of the 
ceremonial law, so it is to be observed in the next 
place, that wine, into which the water was changed, 
represented the blood of Christ, being the symbol of 
it which He Himself appointed at the last supper ; 
saying, " Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood 
of the New Testament which is shed for many." 
And again, " My flesh is meat indeed, and * my 
blood is drink indeed;" signifying by this, as he 
tells us, his life, which he offered up for the redemp- 
tion of the world. " For the blood" says Moses, 
"is the life, and I have given it upon the altar to 



394 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

be an atonement for your souls ;" that is, for your 
lives ; the blood being the symbol of life. And thus 
too Paul, u The cup which we bless, is it not the 
communion " (that is, joint participation) " of the 
blood of Christ?" The allusions, accordingly, in 
the writers of the New Testament, to the purifying 
and sanctifying influence of the blood of Christ, on 
all who have a lively faith in Him, are innumerable. 
Peter addresses Christians as " elect, through sancti- 
fication of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling 
of the blood of Jesus Christ." " If we walk in the 
light/' says John, " we have fellowship one with 
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us 
from all sin." And the same Apostle was told, con- 
cerning the blessed whom he saw in his vision clothed 
in white robes, " These are they which came out of 
great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and 
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 7 ' 

II. Jesus did not (as He might have done) cause 
wine to appear in vessels which were empty, nor 
direct that the water should be cast away, and then 
replenish the vessels with wine ; but He changed the 
water into wine ; thus indicating that He " came 
not (as He Himself tells us) "to destroy the law 
and the prophets, but to fulfil them." He did not 
cast away and abolish, as something evil in itself, 
or wanting in divine authority, the system of Jewish 



MISCELLANEOUS. 395 

rites and sacrifices ; but He changed them for that 
which they signified, and foreshewed, — even the 
Gospel. He substitutes the substance for the shadow, 
and brought the types to an end by putting in their 
stead the thing typified; "the blood/ 7 as Paul ex- 
presses it, " of the everlasting covenant,' 7 that is, of 
that which was not, like the Mosaic, to come to an 
end, and be superseded by another, but was to last 
for ever. And since " the law," as Paul says, " is 
holy, and just, and good," it was fitting that what 
was chosen to represent it, should not be anything 
of a vile or impure nature, though it were changed, 
— and changed for something more precious. Ac- 
cordingly, the water on which Christ wrought this 
miraculous change, is a thing clear indeed, and pure 
and refreshing, but was converted into wioe, which 
is invigorating and refreshing, and which was there- 
fore ordained by our Lord as a token, a pledge, and 
a means of receiving the spiritual benefit of his 
sacrifice. Whenever, therefore, we see the sacra- 
mental cup filled for us in commemoration of Christ's 
death, and according to his holy Institution, we 
should remember that He deigned to sanctify that 
fruit of the vine, not only in the last (before He 
suffered), but in the first remarkable manifestation 
of Himself to his Disciples ; and that He who once 
changed the water into wine, literally, is able and is 



396 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

ready now, by an inward and spiritual working of 
the same divine power, to change the outward sign 
of partaking of the cup, into the partaking of his 
atoning sacrifice, and receiving of His Holy Spirit 
into our souls, of which spirit his flesh and blood 
are themselves the sign; for "it is the Spirit," 
says He, " that giveth life ; the flesh profiteth 
nothing. " 

III. The introduction of a change of the Mosaic 
Law for something far more excellent, was not only 
unexpected by the Jews (notwithstanding the express 
declarations of their Prophets) but unacceptable and 
matter of offence to them. This circumstance, there- 
fore, — the reservation of the more glorious dispensa- 
tion for the time of the Lord's own coming, — was 
not left unnoticed among the significant circumstances 
which accompanied this remarkable miracle. It was 
intimated in the mystical meaning of the words of 
the governor of the feast (not understood by himself) 
when, expressing his surprise, he says, "Every 
man at the beginning dofch set forth good wine, and 
when men have well drunk, then that which is worse ; 
but thou hast kept the good wine until now J 9 

IV. It is to be observed, that the symbols of both 
our Lord's Sacraments were present on the occasion 
of this his first miracle, — water, by which He him- 
self had just before been baptized, and which He 



MISCELLANEOUS. 397 

chose as the emblem of the spiritual cleansing, and 
purifying efficacy of the Holy Spirit (as was indicated 
by the visible appearance of the Spirit descending 
on Him on that occasion), and wine, the appointed 
emblem of his blood ; and into which the water was 
changed, to point out that it is through his sacrifice 
that we are made partakers of the spiritual purifica- 
tion which Baptism denotes. 

V. Again, there are in the Sacred Writers per- 
petual allusions to the union between Christ and the 
Church (of which He is the Head), under the figure 
of a marriage ; to denote the affectionate regard 
which He bears towards this his spouse, his watch- 
ful protection and constant presence with her ( u lo, 
I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
world"), and also the spotless purity and devoted 
love which He looks for from her. In many of his 
parables, He alludes to Himself under the character 
of a Bridegroom ; and often describes the Kingdom 
of Heaven by the parable of a wedding feast. And 
as there can be no doubt, I think, that in so doing 
He alluded to this His mystical union with the 
Church, which was afterwards to be, by His Apostles, 
so strongly dwelt upon, and set forth, under that 
figure ; so it is more than probable our Lord had in 
view when He chose a marriage-feast for the scene 
of this most significant miracle, His own marriage 



398 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

with the Church, which He " purchased for Him- 
self/ ' and sanctified with his own blood; with whom 
hereafter, in her glorified and triumphant state in 
heaven, He will celebrate anew his mystical union, 
according to the vision seen by John in the Revela- 
tions (the>very apostle who records the marriage at 
Cana); "Let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage 
of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself 
ready ; and to her was granted that she should be 
arrayed in fine linen, clean and white ; for the fine 
linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he 
saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are 
called unto the marriage -supper of the Lanib," 

The Law and the Gospel, like the flower and the 
fruit of a plant, correspond in almost every point, 
but coincide in very few. 

Many are the points in which " the law was our 
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ ;" and many an 
error prevailing among Christians might be cured, if 
they would but diligently listen to the voice of this 
schoolmaster, and profit by the lessons, which the 
Old Testament, if rightly understood, is capable of 
affording. 

It appears to have been part of the design of the 






MISCELLANEOUS. 399 

Mosaic dispensation to exhibit to mankind a sensible 
specimen, or rather representation, by way of proof, 
of that moral government of God, the system of 
which is but imperfectly displayed in the world at 
large ; and which is to be completed, and fully 
realized, only in a future state. Without entering 
into a full explanation and defence of this hypothesis, 
let it be allowed to adopt for the present the sup- 
position, merely as a supposition, that the Mosaic 
dispensation was, in part, designed for the purpose 
just mentioned ; that we may examine how far the 
peculiar circumstances of that dispensation correspond 
with, and are explained by, it. 1. It would mani- 
festly be necessary then, with a view to the object 
in question, that the Israelites should be exhibited 
as uniformly and regularly rewarded or punished, 
according to their obedience or disobedience to the 
divine commands. 2. And moreover, in order that 
the correspondence of their situation with their con- 
duct might be more conspicuously displayed, it was 
necessary that they should be nationally as well as 
individually prosperous or unfortunate, in conse- 
quence of their good or ill conduct ; since the fate 
of individuals would have been too obscure to engage 
general attention. 3. It was requisite, for the 
same reason, that the obedience required of them 
should not consist in moral rectitude alone ; because 



400 THOUGHTS AND AFOPHTHEGMS. 

in that case the correspondence of their circumstances 
to their behaviour would not have been sufficiently 
manifest For moral virtue consists, chiefly, in 
purity of motives, and propriety of inward feelings ; 
concerning which other men cannot with any cer- 
tainty form a judgment, It was requisite, therefore, 
that their obedience should be tried in the practice 
of external rites, and in a conformity to certain 
positive ordinances. For these observances, though 
originally matters of indifference, assume a moral 
character, and become duties when enjoined by 
divine authority ; and the obedience or disobedience 
of a People on such points, is a matter open to 
general observation, and one which no one would be 
liable to mistake. 4. Lastly, with the same view, 
it was no less requisite that the rewards and punish- 
ments also, which should be the sanction of such a 
law, should be of a nature no less palpable, and 
open to general observation; and should therefore 
not consist in anything inward and invisible, as in 
peace of mind, and in horrors of conscience ; nor in 
the hopes and fears of a future state ; but in the 
immediate and conspicuous distribution- of outward 
worldly prosperity and adversity. 

The close correspondence, in all points, of the 
dispensation actually given, with the forgoing des- 
cription, is no slight presumption that the object of 



MISCELLANEOUS. 401 

that dispensation was, in part at least, such as I have 
supposed, viz., to exhibit to mankind, (to those, 
that is, who should be, in early times, neighbours 
to the Israelites, or have any intercourse with them, 
and subsequently to us, and to all others who should 
read their history, and view their present fate,) to 
exhibit, I say, a striking picture of God's moral 
government, — to convince all men of his superin- 
tending providence, — and to instruct them in the 
principles of justice, by which his dealings with 
them will be regulated. 

Nor is it any valid objection to the explanation 
here offered, to say, that the national blessings and 
national chastisements sent upon the Israelites, as a 
people, independent of what was enjoyed or suffered 
by individuals, could be no instance of the divine 
administration of justice; inasmuch as a nation, 
considered as a nation, is no real personal agent, nor 
capable of reward or punishment. For though it can- 
not properly be said to afford an instance or example of 
God's moral government, it may nevertheless serve 
equally well to furnish a figure and representation 
of that government for our instruction, which is the 
object we have been supposing designed. Its not 
being really a distinct Being, does not render it the 
less fit for that purpose ; since men are able to form 
a distinct conception of it; which is all that is 

D D 



402 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

requisite. A sufficient knowledge respecting a coun- 
try may be obtained from a map, although that 
consists of paper and ink, and the other of land and 
water. 

In fact there are, throughout the Mosaic law, innu- 
merable cases in which representations or figures are- 
given of the divine justice which cannot be regarded 
as themselves instances of it. There are for example 
many occasions on which beasts are commanded to 
be put to death, as if criminal; as when a beast 
approached the holy mountain, or occasioned the 
death of any man ; not that a brute -can be supposed 
a moral agent, and in itself a lit object of divine 
punishment ; but yet the lessons of justice, of reve- 
rential piety, and of purity, which were by this 
means conveyed, were not the less intelligible. 
Thus a lamb without bodily blemish could have no 
real and intrinsic merit in the sight of God, but the 
sacrifice of this represented the meritorious sacrifice 
of Christ. The same remark applies to the other 
types, figures, representations, in the Jewish ritual, 
of the various parts of that more perfect and final 
dispensation, whereof we enjoy the reality. 

So far were Christian ministers from being in- 
structed by their divine Monitor to keep the Old 
Testament out of sight, that there is no point more 



MISCELLANEOUS. 403 

strenuously and uniformly insisted on, than the con- 
nexion of the Old and New Dispensations. Even in 
those places in which the great majority of the 
Christian brethren being converted Gentiles, it might 
have been supposed that the Old Testament would 
have been but little studied or thought of, Paul was 
so far from allowing the Jewish Scriptures to be de- 
preciated, that he seems to have expected in all his 
converts, an intimate acquaintance with the Old 
Testament ; and to have earnestly, and not unsuc- 
cessfully, inculcated the necessity of interpreting the 
one scheme by the other, as two parts of one great 
whole, and of considering " whatsoever things were 
written aforetime as written for their learning." 
And the frequent allusions he makes to them as 
familiar to his hearers, and of acknowledged value 
in their eyes, convey his judgment on the subject 
far more strongly than so many direct admonitions ; 
they indicate what was the early, the habitual, and 
the universal mode of instruction employed by him- 
self and all the Christian teachers. No Christian, 
therefore, who would copy the pattern of this inspired 
teacher will leave the Old Testament out of sight ; 
but will learn from him that the former dispensation 
must be carefully attended to by one who would 
rightly understand the Gospel. 



404 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

He who studies, and leads others to study, the 
whole Word of God, as his inspired servants have 
left it, has at least good reason to hope, that he and 
they may, through God's spirit, attain truth without 
error ; whereas he who confines himself to a part 
of the Scriptures, is sure to be wrong, and to lead 
others wrong if they are guided by him. 

An ambiguity in the word " Gospel," is deserving 
of notice, as it has been the source of much evil in 
leading to the neglect of the apostolic epistles. The 
word, which signifies according to its etymology, as 
well as the Greek term of which it is a translation, 
'•good tidings," and is thence applied especially to 
the joyful intelligence of salvation for fallen man 
through Christ, has come to be applied, naturally 
enough, to each of the histories of the life of Him, 
the Author of that salvation. Hence men are fre- 
quently led to seek exclusively, or principally, in 
those histories for an account of the doctrines of the 
Christian religion ; for where should they look, they 
may say, for " Gospel-truth," but in the " Gospels?" 
And because it is said that our Lord preached the 
Gospel, many are led to look to his discourses alone, 
or principally, as the store-house of divine truth to 
the neglect of the other Scriptures of the New 



MISCELLANEOUS. 405 

Testament. But u the Gospel of the Kingdom" 
which He preached was, that the " Kingdom of 
Heaven was at hand" not that it was actually esta- 
blished, which was the Gospel preached by his 
Apostles, when Christ " having been made perfect 
through sufferings," having laid the keystone of the 
Gospel scheme of salvation, in his meritorious sacri- 
fice, as an atonement for sin, and his resurrection 
from the dead, had entered into his Kingdom — had 
" ascended on high, and led captive" the Oppressor 
of men, and had " received gifts" to bestow upon 
them. Our Lord's discourses, therefore, while on 
earth — though they teach, of course, the truth — 
do not teach, nor could have been meant to teach, 
the whole truth as afterwards revealed to his disci- 
ples. They could not, indeed, even consistently 
with truth, have contained the main part of what 
the apostles preached, because that was chiefly 
founded on events which had not then taken place. 
He did indeed hint at these events in his discourses 
to his disciples, and to them alone, by way of pro- 
phecy ; but we are told that u the saying was hid 
from them, and they comprehended it not, till after 
that Christ was risen from the dead." Had our 
Lord's discourses contained a full account of the 
Christian faith, there would have been no need of 
his saying, " I have yet many things to say unto 



406 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

you, but ye cannot bear them now, Howbeit when 
He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you 
into all (the) truth. 7 ' And when, through inspira- 
tion from on high, the apostles did understand the 
Gospel, the true character of the redemption, and 
of the faith by which we must partake of it, they 
taught its doctrines in their discourses and in their 
epistles. Our chief source of instruction, then, 
must be in the Apostolic Epistles. They contain all 
the doctrines of the Gospel, as far as they have 
been revealed to men; furnishing us with the means, 
by a careful and diligent study of those precious 
remains, of attaining sufficient knowledge of all 
necessary truth, and of becoming " wise unto salva- 
tion, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." 

To confine attention to the four gospels, as con- 
taining all important truth, and to neglect or explain 
away the remainder of the New Testament is to act 
like one who should destroy and reject ds spurious 
excrescence every part of the fruit of a tree which 
was not fully developed in the blossom that preceded 
it. 

The most precious part of the treasure of Christian 
doctrine contained in the epistles we have from the 
pen of the apostle Paul. Those who prize the purity 



MISCELLANEOUS. 407 

of the Gospel should value his writings the more, 
as there is no one of the Sacred Writers whose ex- 
pressions have been so tortured, whose authority 
has been set so much at naught as Paul's, by those 
who reject many of the most characteristic doctrines 
of the Gospel ; which is a plain proof that they find 
him a formidable opponent ; not, indeed, as the only 
authority for these great truths but as particularly 
full and clear in enforcing them. The Mahometans 
who acknowledge the authority of the four Gospels, 
though they pretend the Christians have interpolated 
them, hold the name of Paul in detestation. And 
besides the especial hatred of his writings by infidels, 
and by some description of heretics, no part of the 
Scriptures of the New Testament has been so unjustly 
neglected by some Christians, and so much perverted 
by others. 

There is good reason to believe that the objection 
to Paul's writings is not from the " things hard to 
be understood' } which they contain, but from the 
things easy to be understood, the doctrines so plainly 
taught by him that "by grace we are saved ;" that 
" the wages of sin is death, but eternal life is the 
gift of. God through Jesus Christ;" that our most 
perfect righteousness can never enable us to claim 
reward at the hand of God, nor our own unaided 



408 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 

strength enable us to practise that righteousness ; 
but that the meritorious sacrifice of Christ is the 
only foundation of the Christian's hope, and the aid 
of his Spirit, the only support of the Christian's 
virtue. It is on account of these doctrines that 
Paul's writings are objected to, because they are 
humbling to the pride of the human heart, and 
therefore unacceptable to the natural man. 

There appears to be a very remarkable analogy 
between the treatment to which Paul was himself 
exposed during his personal ministry on earth, and 
that which his writings have met with since. In 
both he stands distinguished in many points among 
the preachers of the Gospel ; and it is possible that 
this distinction may in some way be connected with 
the peculiar manner in which he became one of that 
number. The same Apostle who had been originally 
so bitter a persecutor of the Christians, was exposed 
after his conversion, to a greater variety of afflictions 
in the gospel-cause than any of the others. 

It is not unlikely that his Lord designed thus to 
place him foremost in fight, thus to assign to him, 
both the most hazardous and also the most harassing 
and distressing offices in the Christian ministry, on 
account of his having once been a blasphemer and 
persecutor. Not as a punishment, or again that he 



MISCELLANEOUS. 409 

might atone and make compensation for his former 
sin (which no man can do) ; but that he might have 
an opportunity of completely retracing his steps, and 
of feeling that he did so ; that he might display a 
zeal, and firmness, and patience, and perseverance, 
above all the rest, in the cause which he had once 
oppressed ; that by having his own injurious treat- 
ment of Christians continually brought to his mind 
by what he himself endured, he might the more 
deeply and deliberately humble himself before God 
for it ; that he might find room to exercise in his 
dealings with unbelievers, all that full knowledge 
of the perverse prejudices of the human mind, with 
which his own memory would furnish him by reflect- 
ing on his own case ; and, finally, that both he and 
the other Apostles might feel that he was placed 
fully on a level with them, notwithstanding his 
former opposition to the cause ; by enduring and ac- 
complishing in it more than all the rest, by suffering 
more than he had ever inflicted, by forwarding the 
cause of Truth more than he had ever hindered it, 
and by bearing with him this pledge that God had 
fully pardoned him, the pledge of his being counted 
worthy not only to suffer in his Master's cause, but 
to suffer more than any other, and with greater effect. 
He who had been accessory to the stoning of 
Stephen, himself, alone of Apostles, as far as we 



410 THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS,' 

know, suffered stoning ; he who had been so zealous 
in behalf of the law of Moses, was destined to en- 
counter not only unbelieving Jews, but those Chris- 
tians also who laboured to corrupt Christianity by 
mixing the law of Moses with it ; he who had been, 
as he expresses it, " exceedingly mad against the 
disciple*, and persecuted them even unto strange 
cities/' was himself driven from city to city by 
enemies whose fury knew no bounds, both of his own 
countrymen, and of the senseless rabble of idolaters, 
who assailed him like " wild beasts at Ephesus." 
He who had misinterpreted the ancient prophecies 
respecting the Messiah, and despised his disciples, 
had to endure not only the contradiction and derision 
of unbelievers, but also the wilfulness and perversity 
of " false brethren," who misrepresented and distorted 
the doctrines he himself taught, and of arrogant 
rivals who strove to bring him into disrepute with 
those who had learnt the faith from him. In all 
these struggles, he was "more than conqueror, 
through Christ that strengthened" him. 

I 

, Still may Paul be said to stand in his works, as 

he did in person while on earth, in the front of the 

battle : to bear the chief brunt of assailants from 
a ' 

the enemies' side, and to be treacherously stabbed 



MISCELLANEOUS, 411 

by false friends on his own. And still do his works 
stand, and will ever stand, as a mighty bulwark of 
the true Christian faith. He, after having himself 
u fought the good fight, and finished his course/ ' 
has left behind him a monument in his works, where- 
by, "he being dead, yet speaketh ;" — a monument 
which his Master will guard (even till that day 
when its author shall receive the " crown of righte- 
ousness laid up for him ") from being overthrown by 
the assaults of enemies, and from mouldering into 
decay through the negligence of friends. His labours 
can never be effectually frustrated except by being- 
kept out of sight. Whatever brings him into notice 
will, ultimately, bring him into triumph. All the 
malignity and the sophistry of his adversaries will 
not only assail him in vain, but will lead in the end 
to the perfecting of his glory, and the extension of 
his Gospel. They may scourge him uncondemnned, 
like the Roman magistrates at Philippi ; they may 
inflict on him the lashes of calumnious censure, but 
they cannot silence him ; they may thrust him, as 
'it were, into a dungeon, and fetter him with their 
strained interpretations, but his voice will be raised 
even at the midnight of unchristian darkness, and 
will be heard effectually ; his prison-doors will burst 
open as with an earthquake, and the fetters will fall 






412 



THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS. 



from his hands ; and even strangers to Gospel-truth 
will fall down at the feet of him — even Paul, to make 
that momentous inquiry, " What shall I do to be 
saved?" 



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